SOFIA, Bulgaria, JULY 26, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Bulgarian bishops expressed their satisfaction at the liberation of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who were accused of intentionally infecting Libyan children with the virus that causes AIDS.
The six health care workers were freed Tuesday thanks to an international negotiation. Though they had been found guilty and condemned first to death and then to life imprisonment, outside Libya the charges were widely thought false.
Byzantine-rite Bishop Christo Proykov of Sofia, president of the Bulgarian episcopal conference, said, "God has heard the prayers of the Bulgarians."
In statements to the Italian bishops' SIR news agency, he said: "Today for Bulgarians is a day of Easter, because justice has risen. The arrival of our compatriots has been a most beautiful surprise."
According to the prelate, the important thing is that "all has ended well. Evil has been overcome and I think that these people, who have suffered so much, have maintained their spirits and are in a fair state, despite the horrors they have suffered.
"It has been most beautiful that the European Union has taken so seriously the Bulgarian nurses' situation, and has placed itself on the side of justice. […] The rest is for history, which will judge those who have made these poor women suffer so much."
ZE07072604 - 2007-07-26