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Medics Freed After Eight-Year Ordeal in Libya

Six foreign medics are resting up at the Bulgarian presidential residence after a harrowing eight-year ordeal in Libya. The five nurses and a Palestinian-born doctor, who is now a Bulgarian citizen, were pardoned on their arrival in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.

Libya had convicted the medics of deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with the HIV virus, although most international health experts dismissed the accusation. They had been imprisoned since 1999 and have always maintained that they are innocent.

One week ago, journalist Matthew Brunwasser reported from Sofia about the commutation of their death sentences to life in prison. Now he talks with Robert Siegel.

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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