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Jul 30th, 2007 • Posted in: What They're Saying

“It’s the end of a nightmare for these women and this man. Everyone in Europe is convinced that they are innocent…. We had to get them out, we got them out, and that’s all that matters.”

– French president Nicolas Sarkozy, talking last week about the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor imprisoned for eight years by Libya, which accused them of deliberately infecting Libyan children with HIV.

The medics’ innocence was not in doubt in the West — independent studies showed that the hospital infections occurred years before the they arrived in Libya, notes the Washington Post. They reportedly were tortured to extract confessions and subjected to three trials and two separate death sentences.

And while their release was widely celebrated, some questions have arisen about the deal that secured their freedom — a deal involving massive debt forgiveness for Libya and million-dollar payments to the families of the infected children, which has struck some as little more than ransom.

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1. Ethics Newsline » News » French President’s Holocaust Awareness Proposal Prompts Debate on February 18th, 2008 at 3:13 pm:

   [...] more information, see: Related Newsline story, July 30, 2007 — Related Newsline story, Apr. 16, 2007 — Related Newsline story, [...]

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