TRIPOLI, 26 July 2007 — French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Tripoli yesterday for talks with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, boosting EU-Libya ties a day after the release of six foreign medics Sarkozy has touted his visit of less than 24 hours as a “political trip” to help Libya’s reintegration into the international community after decades of sanctions and isolation.
It comes after French efforts contributed to the release on Tuesday of the medics, held in Libya since 1999 and whose death sentence for infecting children with the AIDS virus was commuted. Later, Qaddafi held talks with the French president at Bab Azizia, a sprawling complex outside Tripoli where the Libyan leader holds court.
Observers saw Sarkozy’s determination to see the medics released as evidence he wants to boost ties with oil-rich Libya. A day after the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were flown to freedom in Bulgaria and pardoned by its president, Sarkozy and his wife were accused in the European press of stealing the credit.
In Libya, the victims’ families expressed outrage at the medics being pardoned and demanded they be rearrested and forced to serve out the life sentences they were given after the death penalty was commuted.
In a statement, an association of the families said Libya should deport all Bulgarian nationals and stop dealing with Bulgarian companies and demanded the medics be rearrested by Interpol.
“The families expressed their condemnation and resentment at the recklessness of the Bulgarian nation when the Bulgarian president pardoned the nurses,” the Libyan Association for the Families of HIV-Infected Children said.
