AP Features, May 13th, 2007
Thousands of people attended a public prayer service led by Patriarch Maxim of Bulgaria, who called for a "just verdict" in the case of six medics sentenced to death in Libya.
The outdoor service, which many clergy of the Balkan country's Orthodox Christian church attended, was conducted at the foot of the landmark Alexander Nevski Cathedral in downtown Sofia on Saturday.
People were holding banners reading "You are not alone" in a show of support for five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor who are facing the death penalty in Libya for allegedly infecting about 400 Libyan children with HIV.
Among the people in front of the cathedral were relatives of the nurses as well as the father and the sister of the Palestinian doctor.
"We pray for the motherly mercy of the Holy Virgin for the innocent Bulgarian nurses, enduring severe suffering on foreign soil, to receive soonest a just verdict and to return home to their beloved ones," said Patriarch Maxim, spiritual leader of the country's Orthodox Christians.
The medics were condemned to death in a December retrial amid international concern over the fairness of Libyan justice. They also were sentenced to death in 2004.
The sentences were based on the nurses' alleged confessions, but some of the nurses have said they were tortured into admitting guilt.
The United States and the EU have expressed shock and disappointment with the verdicts, and have called on Libya to free the nurses and the doctor.
Expert witnesses at the trial testified that the HIV virus was rampant in the Benghazi hospital where the children were infected before the Bulgarians began working there in the late 1990s.
The six medical workers have been in jail since their arrest in February 1999. They are awaiting the appeal of their convictions and death sentences before Libya's supreme court.
In a special rite for Saturday's occasion, three icons of the Holy Virgin, believed to be miraculous, were brought from the country's three main monasteries _ Troyan, Rila and Bachkovo.
"This is the first time the icons were taken out from the monasteries. They will remain in the cathedral as long as there are people coming to pray for the release of the medics," said Rev. Dimitar, one of the organizers of the Mass.
The cathedral will remain open during the entire night Sunday and in the next days.
