SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Five nurses and a doctor freed last week after eight years in Libyan captivity were held in a remote area where no one could hear their screams as they were tortured, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
In his first newspaper interview since his release, the doctor, Ashraf al-Hazouz, described the "hell" of being held in solitary confinement in a tiny cell barely long enough for him to lie down. He said his captors sexually assaulted the nurses and injected them all with what they were told was the HIV virus.
The six Bulgarian nationals, who were sentenced to death after they were convicted of spreading the HIV virus among patients in a children's hospital in Libya, were released last week and are preparing to sue the Libyan government over their treatment.
Speaking from the Bulgarian presidential residence in Sofia, where he and the nurses are currently staying, Dr al-Hazouz said: "The past eight years have been one big nightmare. We were tortured during the police investigation for over 10 months. We were held in a remote place outside of Tripoli, in a desolate area where no one could hear you scream. It was hell we went through. Libya HIV doctor tells of eight-year hell (more) By Bojan Pancevski in Vienna
Mark Alexander
