AP Features, February 9th, 2007
Bulgarians across the country on Friday staged shows of solidarity with five compatriots sentenced to death in Libya, to mark the eighth anniversary of their arrest.
Students marched to the Libyan embassy where they left some 400 red roses with a message in Arabic saying "Dear child, you are not alone," for each of the Libyan children infected with AIDS in an epidemic blamed on the medics.
The five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor have been in jail since February 1999, accused of deliberately infecting more than 400 children with HIV at a hospital in Benghazi.
They were sentenced to death twice _ in 2004 and again in 2006, following a court appeal. The death sentences were based on the nurses' alleged confessions, but some of the nurses say they are innocent and were beaten and tortured to admit guilt.
The court has also ignored scientific evidence showing the children had the virus before the medical workers came to Libya. Bulgaria and European officials have repeatedly blamed the infections on unhygienic practices at the hospital, and accuse Libya of making the medical workers scapegoats.
"Feb. 8 marks a sad and absolutely unacceptable anniversary of the detention of the Bulgarian nurses in Libya. Our compatriots, who are also citizens of the EU, have the right to a fair trial which they have been denied for eight years," parliament speaker Georgi Pirinski said in a statement.
The European Union, which Bulgaria joined on Jan. 1, and the United States have long pressed for the six to be released and have offered financial support for the treatment of the HIV-infected children.
On Friday, prayers for the medics to be freed were held in Orthodox churches, mosques, synagogues and in Catholic, Armenian and Evangelist churches around the country.
Media have called on Sofia residents to join a march of solidarity under the slogan "You are not alone" _ to support both the imprisoned nurses and the infected children _ through the capital's central streets. It will end with an open-air prayer outside the main Alexander Nevski cathedral Friday evening.
Newspapers have been distributing special ribbons with the words "You are not alone" for people to wear on their coats. Postal services are stamping the slogan on envelopes and three Bulgarian airline companies carry the symbol on their planes.
