The son of Libyan dictator Muammar Gadaffi has admitted that the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor who were imprisoned for eight years and sentenced to death on trumped up charges of deliberately infecting hundreds of children with HIV, were tortured while in detention.
In an interview with Arab satellite station al-Jazeera, Saif al-Islam al-Gadaffi said the medics were tortured using electricity and told that “their family members would be targeted”.
The medics were released last month after the European Union agreed to give Libya $460m and Bulgaria forgave $56.6m in debt owed by Libya. France also offered Libya a lucrative arms deal.
Ashraf al-Hazouz, the Palestinian doctor who was given Bulgarian citizenship, said in an interview with Dutch television after his release that the Libyan authorities attached electrodes to his genitals and feet, set dogs on him, drugged him, and tied his hands and legs to a metal bar and spun him. He also strongly criticized the Arab League for not lifting a finger to stop the torture.
What a nice new ally the west has in Mr. Gadaffi.