Bulgarian President Rumen Radev presented the Presidential Honorary Medal to Anthony Layden, the former British Ambassador to Libya. This honour acknowledges Layden’s pivotal role in securing the release of the Bulgarian nurses who were detained in Libya. Radev emphasized that Layden’s efforts went beyond diplomatic obligation, becoming a “deeply humanitarian cause” embodying the values of compassion and solidarity, asserting that the story of their rescue remains “etched in Bulgaria’s memory.”
An International Crisis Starting in 1998
The HIV children’s case stands as one of the most intricate legal and humanitarian crises in modern Libyan history. It began in 1998 with suspicions surrounding the involvement of 23 foreign medical staff in injecting approximately 393 children at the Al-Fateh Hospital in Benghazi with HIV-contaminated material. This was followed in early 1999 by the detention of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian intern doctor, Ashraf Al-Hajaji.
The defendants faced charges of “deliberate injection” in 2000, and the Libyan judiciary handed down death sentences against them in 2004 and 2006. Allegations that the detainees were tortured during investigations led to the intervention of the European Commission to support the nurses, particularly as Bulgaria was then a candidate for EU accession.
Sarkozy’s Efforts and the Compensation Fund
2007 marked a decisive shift in the negotiations following Nicolas Sarkozy’s election as the French President. His wife, Cécilia Sarkozy, working alongside European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner, took charge of the final negotiations with Libyan authorities.
These negotiations resulted in a complex diplomatic settlement encompassing two main elements: first, the commutation of the death sentences to life imprisonment, with the provision for the convicted individuals to serve the remainder of their terms in Bulgaria. Second, the establishment of the “$600 million Benghazi Fund for Compensation,” financed by contributions from nations like the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, to award $1 million to each victim. France further committed to upgrading the Benghazi hospital infrastructure by equipping it and providing medical staff training for five years, including the qualification of 50 additional doctors.
On June 24, 2007, the nurses and the doctor were released and arrived in Sofia alongside Cécilia Sarkozy. Immediately, the then-Bulgarian President, Georgi Parvanov, issued a decree granting them a full pardon after they had spent eight and a half years in Libyan prisons.
External Source Revealed for Contaminated Material
In a separate development, Mohammed Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zwai, the last Secretary-General of the General People’s Congress, provided additional testimony. Al-Zwai indicated that the Bulgarian nurses blackmailed the Palestinian doctor, using threats to publish personal photos, to recruit him into the contaminated injection operations. Crucially, he confirmed that the contaminated material itself was “supplied from an external source.”
The humanitarian and legal ramifications of this case, which involved human rights violations, medical failures, and intricate international diplomacy, remain under continuous review today, especially regarding the rights of the victims and the enhancement of healthcare in Libya.
