This is ridiculous.Lets get one thing right.If the court found them guilty there is very little anyone could do.If the same thing happened in the UK, and the courts found, say Zambian nurses guilty, there wouldn't be all this hoopla, sense of entitlement arrogance.Obviously Bulgaria, and indeed are only driven by their own sense of superiority over everyone else.The same things happens all the time in Malaysia when people traffic drugs into the country, westerners are pardoned, third world citizens are slaughtered.

Get a grip, its not beyond them to be guilty.

Marco, Barking, Essex

The myth that "Gaddafi went VERY quiet after President Reagan sent him a 'message'" is persistent... and pernicious nonsense. Kaddafi's worst atrocities followed Reagan's limited response to the La Belle disco bombing.

Kaddafi's La Belle disco bombing was casus bellum. But our NATO allies vacilated; and Reagan settled for sending a "message"-- rather than taking out the terrorist. Naturally, Kaddafi was (and remains) emboldened.

How did Kaddafi react? The Xmas mass murders @ Lockerbie... and his long, bloody campaign of IRA terrorism by proxy. He murdered thousands of infidel Westerners with virtual impunity.

The time for sending "messages" should have ended with Saddam being pulled out of his spiderhole. That's the way to handle these monsters. Instead, Kaddafi wears a farsical cloak of Mandela-esque rehabilitation-- even while he practices hostage extortion and forms alliances with his Shi'ite allies in Tehran.

/Nemo me impune lacessit

/Kaddafi delenda est

Terp Mole, Washington DC, USA

Bulgaria should have sent 2 helicopters of the special forces long time ago to solve the problem. This is how the US would proceed, and I am surprised to say that this seems the only right choice to me. In countries like Lybia.

Julian, Sofia, Bulgaria

I would like to congratulate you too. You said it all with this article, which is heading the news back in Bulgaria. Libya contradicts itself by sentencing the medics to death but yet offers to release them if all compensations are paid in full. How can this be? Why set them free if they say that the medics are guilty and indeed if they were guilty why not sentence them to death long time ago and why keep them for more than 8 years? Obviously they want something out of it and the matter is purely a political one. You are very right about the HIV virus. I have read Luc Montagnier's letter and report and he clearly states that there are several types of HIV and the one that the children have is the one that can be transmitted from a mother to child and no other way. Yet all this adding it to more proofs that were presented in court was overruled and ignored. It is obvious why. Politicians do not care and do not do anything about it because it is not their nationals that are suffering...

Daisy R, Nottingham, UK

I would substitute "Europe" with "Bulgaria's politicians" and the Bulgarian people know exactly why--we've been witnessing our leaders' political impotence for years. Other countries saved their medics, just the Bulgarians and the Palestinian stayed.

Living in Nasya's birthplace, I've seen the human dimension of the tragedy. Children were deprived of their mothers, the mothers themselves were denied the right to take care of their children and watch them grow. Eight years is quite a long time! Who can give their life back to these people? How?

I send all my respects to the author of the article, Rosemary Right, who managed to say so many important things in a few words. I was impressed by the spelling of Qaddafi's name--"Gaddafi", it contains a word which means "a pest", "a stinker" in the nurses' mother tongue; this goes so well with the title of the article.

Maya Lyubenova, Kotel, Bulgaria

I would substitute "Europe" with "Bulgaria's politicians" and the Bulgarian people know exactly why--we've been witnessing our leaders' political impotence for years. Other countries saved their medics, just the Bulgarians and the Palestinian stayed.

Living in Nasya's birthplace, I've seen the human dimension of the tragedy. Children were deprived of their mothers, the mothers themselves were denied the right to take care of their children and watch them grow. Eight years is quite a long time! Who can give their life back to these people? How?

I send all my respects to the author of the article, Rosemary Right, who managed to say so many important things in a few words. I was impressed by the spelling of Qaddafi's name--"Gaddafi", it contains a word which means "a pest", "a stinker" in the nurses' mother tongue; this goes so well with the title of the article.

Maya Lyubenova, Kotel, Bulgaria

I would substitute "Europe's politicians" with "Bulgaria's politicians" and the Bulgarian people knows why--we've been witnessing our leaders' political impotence in this case for years.

Living in Nasya's birthplace, I know the human dimensions of the tragedy. Her son grew up without his mother. She was deprived of the opportunity to watch him grow. Who can give the life back to these people? How?

My respects go for the author of the article, Rosemary Righter, who managed to say so many important things in a few simple words. I would recommend the article to all my English-speaking friends.

Maya Lyubenova, Kotel, Bulgaria

We should thing about sending a new "message" to this people!! It is really good idea!

Dimitar, Sofia, Bulgaria

Lost Hope, You have failed in reasoning... Gathafi is still in power, the Lockerbie investigation is reopened and pointing squarely at the US, and investigations into Bulgaria's medical community's dealings with the Romani people. All the villainy that was placed on Libya may lie somewhere else.

Sandra, Louisiana, US

this game no longer just stinks.. its turned rotten and its growing mold all over.

Elitza, New York, New York,

Well, this article just hit the nail on the haed. We the EU are still reffering to these poor souls as The Bulgarian Nurces - wrong. We should call them what they realy are - Cadaffi's Hostiges. He holds them for ransom and it looks like he's got the money already. Now our leaders just wait for his next demand - The Lockerby Bomber.
For a first time in my life I am ashamed to be European. We gave in to the demands of a criminal dictator and could not protect our own. Our leaders followed George Bush in Iraq for all the wrong reasons we sent there bilions of tax dollars and got only body bags in return. Why cann't we get the americans to follow us in Lybia for a good reason? $400 000 000 could by a lot of laser guided bombs - the only kind of language Cadaffi seams to understand.

P Pentchev, London, UK

For "Europe", please could you substitute "Europe's politicians". The human beings amongst us have surely been as horrified by this evolving story as you were.

Jonathan Heatley, Southend, Scotland

The people must know the truth. Dear Rosemary, thank you!

Nikolay Nikolov, varna, Bulgaria

"...The high number of cases (around 450), and the period of time of the nosocomial infection (over three years) can be explained by both the high specific infectivity of this strain and certain incorrect practices used by the medical and nursing staff at that time... " Final Report of Prof. Luc Montagnier and Prof. Vittorio Colizzi

Is this evidence for guiltiness or innocence?

stink libian child, London, UK

Thank you for the article and for the support, Ms Righter and Times Online . It has been a long and painful suffering for our nurses and long and painful sruggle for all of us in BG. I hope we will meet our girls at Sofia Airport really soon but on the other hand Gaddafi is unpredictable.
Thanks once again.

Kleo, Plovdiv, Bulgaria

I'm from Bulgaria and I really hope this case finished soon so our nurses come home!

Arinna, Montana, Bulgaria

Hmmm. Is this the Libya which chairs the UN Human Rights commission?

Nah, can't be. All this must have happened at Gitmo - or perhaps Abu Ghraib.

Don, London, UK

It's sad but true. Europe submitted to this blackmail and payed for the freedom of 6 innocent people. Instead of really exerting preasure they chose to pay and maintain their cosy relationship with Tripoli

komarche_x, sofia,

Congratulations about this article Rosemary. It is the best article I've read on the case and I think that it really descibes the situation. It says something we all know, but no one said out loud so far. Not even here in Bulgaria.

Kamen Nikolov, Sofia, Bulgaria

Like all situations middle east, they only respect power. Gaddafi went VERY quiet after President Reagan sent him a "message"

lost hope, sydney,