The Cabinet decided on July 17 2008 to cover the costs of social security and health insurance contributions of the seven Bulgarian medics held in captivity in Libya for eight years – a decision made close to a year after the medics came home, and in the face of threats of public protest by the group.

Speaking at a news conference after the weekly meeting of the Cabinet, Labour and Social Policy Deputy Minister Lazar Lazarov said that the benefits would cover the period the medics were in custody in Libya.

Mediapool.bg reported Lazarov as saying that the insurance payments would be based on the minimum salary for that period. This meant that the years spent in prison would be recognised as “work experience”, and the medics would not lose their right to a pension, Lazarov said.

Asked why this decision was taken a year after the medics came back to Bulgaria, Lazarov said that the reasons were administrative. The condition and status of the medics were the subject of constant attention by the social ministry, Lazarov said.

He told the news conference that the medics were given 10 000 leva each on their return. Further sums were given to cover incidental expenses.

A mobile phone company gave the medics an apartment in Sofia each, but a year later, none had moved in, because the apartments were not ready and lacked electricity and water supply.

On July 15 2008, it was reported that the Bulgarian medics were threatening to protest in front of the Presidency and the Cabinet office unless President Georgi Purvanov and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev agreed to meet them to hear their demands.

At the time, the seven medics said through a spokesperson that Bulgaria had failed to fulfil its promises of support for them in social and health insurance payments.

The medics returned to Bulgaria on July 24 2007 through a deal that saw “compensation” paid to the families of hundreds of Libyan children infected with HIV. Libya found guilty and sentenced the medics to death for supposedly deliberately infecting the children. The trial in Libya was widely rejected by several Western countries, medical, legal and human rights organisations as lacking any basis for a guilty verdict.

On their return to Bulgaria, made through a prisoner exchange agreement with Libya, the medics were pardoned by President Purvanov, although their guilty verdicts and sentences technically remain in place.

Reports in several Bulgarian-language newspapers and on national television on July 15 quoted a spokesperson for the medics as saying that the commitments made to the families of the infected children had been fulfilled, but those made to the medics had not been.

The spokesperson said that, unless their demands were met, the group would consider taking court action against Bulgaria and Libya. The basis of the court action would be negligence by Bulgaria and for the torture by Libyan officials, he said.

The medics felt disappointed and used, the July 15 media reports quoted the spokesperson as saying.