By Ingrid Melander
BRUSSELS, June 21 (Reuters) - Families of foreign medics sentenced to death for infecting Libyan children with the virus that causes AIDS urged European Union leaders in Brussels on Thursday to help clinch a deal to end their "nightmare".
Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were convicted in December of deliberately infecting 426 children in a highly politicised trial that has slowed efforts by OPEC member Libya to end its long international isolation.
The medics, jailed since 1999, appealed to Libya's Supreme Court saying they are innocent and were tortured into confessing. The court is expected to rule on their appeal on July 11.
"If we are here today, it is to save the lives of our mothers, to see if the EU can help," said Gergana Ouzounova, 25, daughter of 52-year-old nurse Valia Cherveniashka, in an interview of the families of the medics with Reuters.
The EU and the United States have stepped up pressure for their release. The EU and an association of families of the infected children are discussing a financial settlement that could set the stage for the medics' release.
"We hope that very soon all this nightmare will end, because we cannot bear any more sufferings," said Ahmed Jumaa, 65, father of the doctor Ashraf Alhajouj, who has lived most of his life in Libya and says the police fabricated the charges.
Jumaa, his daughter, and relatives of four of the five nurses came to Brussels hoping to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel, chairing a summit of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
They had not yet received an answer as to whether the meeting would take place.
Asked what she would ask EU leaders, Tzvetanka Siropoulo, step-sister of 48-year-old nurse Valentina Siropoulo, said she wanted the wealthy 27-nation bloc to commit itself to a deadline for a deal and help the HIV-infected children.
Most refused to comment on the on-going talks.
But Ivailo, the son of 54-year-old nurse Snezhana Dimitrova, whose health is the most fragile, said: "I do not expect there will be a deal." Commuting a sentence of guilt would not be fair since the medics were all innocent, he said.
The five nurses, Nasya Nenova, Snezhana Dimitrova, Valentina Siropoulo, Christiana Valcheva and Valia Cherveniashka, worked along with Alhajouj at a hospital in Libya's second city of Benghazi where the injections occurred in the late 1990s.
Talks between the EU and the families' association resumed last month. The association wants around 10 million euros (almost $14 million) for each family.
The European Commission said on Wednesday it would not pay such compensation but was working on a package that ensures the long-term medical care of the children plus long-term assistance to the Benghazi Centre for Infectious Diseases.
Sofia has also refused to pay, saying it would be an admission of guilt. But it has set up a solidarity fund along with the European Union and the United States to provide medical aid and financial support to the children and their relatives.
