Buglarian Foreign Ministry: Trial in Lybia to drag on

The trial against the Bulgarian medics in Libya will not see its conclusion as quickly as we would like to, Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Passy said after his return from Tripoli.

On May 6 the Benghazi Criminal Court delivered death verdicts on five Bulgarian nurses on charges of deliberately infecting with HIV over 400 Libyan children. The same sentence was passed on a Palestinian doctor.

Bulgaria appeals the sentences.

Minister Passy has informed the Libyan side of the position of European Commission head Romano Prodi that the HIV trial is an issue not only for Bulgaria, but for the European Union as well.

According to Minister Passy Libya's Prosecutor's Office is very likely to appeal the sentence of doctor Zdravko Georgiev, who was the only HIV trial defendant to be freed from prison.

The doctor was released as he had already served his four-year sentence during the investigation and the hearings of the court.