A Ray Of Hope!

For the last few months we have been waiting for some word regarding the fate of the Tripoli 7, the subject of 2 other posts over the last year.
If you don't know the background, briefly in 1999 a group of Bulgarian medical workers, Libyans and a Palestinian doctor were arrested in Tripoli on the scapegoat, witch hunt charges of deliberately infecting over a hundred children with the HIV virus. After an investigation, most of the people arrested were freed but 6 Bulgarian Nurses and the Palestinian doctor were held. The atmosphere of Xenophobic panic that infected the parents and the Libyan public made it a politically charged issue for the government.
To make it worse, the government claimed it had confessions from the defendants which were proven later to have been obtained under torture.
They have been held since 1999 and have had a trial and an appeal just last December but unfortunately the death sentence was given in both of them.
The death sentence and guilty verdict was given in spite of a world wide movement of support which included evidence by the French HIV researcher at the Institute Pasteur, Luc Montagnier and top Italian specialists who proved that the epidemic began a year before the Bulgarians arrived and was a specific Saharan strain of the virus and the lack of hygiene in the hospital was the real culprit.
The Libyan Government of Khadafy obviously knows the real story but has chosen for internal political reasons to side with the xenopphobic hate and fear of the public.
They also let it be known that they would take a cash settlement that was revealed last December to be approximately the amount Libya had to pay in settlements over the Lockerbie, Scotland terrorist plane crash.
Bulgaria refused to pay saying that this would be an admission of guilt. None the less, there has been action in Europe to raise the sum and negotiate. This diplomatic effort has been ignored by the United States and is not even a speck on the windscreen.
In January, Saif al-Islam, a son of Khadafy stated that there would be no execution.
In Febuary, the 6 were back in court being sued by the police accused of torturing them. It was a very good sign that the charges were dropped.
It was announced that July 11 will be the day of sentencing. The Bulgarian government went ahead on Tuesday to grant citizenship to the Palestinian doctor after hopes were raised last week by the visit of the German Foreign Minister and the EU External Relations Commisioner.
The latest info from diplomats is that the deal between the EU and the families who are negotiating for $14 million each is not yet completed but that the results will be announced on Friday. This is speeding everything up and perhaps on July 11, Nasya Nenova, Snezhana Dimitrova, Valentina Siripolu, Christiana Valcheva, Valia Cherveniashka and Ashraf Alhajouj will be on a plane to Sofia.
Of course, anything still could happen...