Bulgaria thanks officials who intervened on medics’ behalf

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, his wife Cecilia Sarkozy and EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner became “honourable citizens of Sofia” on Tuesday (July 24th) , following an extraordinary session of Sofia’s Municipal Council. They were awarded for their efforts on behalf of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who were finally released by Libya and returned to Bulgaria after eight years of confinement. They had been sentenced to death twice on internationally disputed charges that they infected Libyan children with HIV.In separate statements Tuesday, the EU, France and Bulgaria thanked the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, for intervening during the peak of negotiations for the medics’ release.