Feted on their release almost a year ago after eight years in captivity in Libya, a group of Bulgarian medics are threatening to protest in front of the Presidency and the Cabinet office unless President Georgi Purvanov and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev meet them to hear their demands.

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 Georgi 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.

After the medics returned to Bulgaria, the Cabinet announced financial and other support for them. A mobile phone company gave the medics apartments, cash and mobile phones. At least one returned to the nursing profession in Bulgaria.

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 spokesperson said.

In the weeks after their release, one of the medics, Dr Ashraf Al-Hadjudj, Palestinian-born but who was given Bulgarian citizenship during the trial in Libya, said that he would sue Libya, a threat at the time that was not supported by the rest of the group.

In the months after their return, the medics were widely feted, and media outlets that participated in a campaign entitled “You Are Not Alone” in support of getting the medics freed frequently congratulated themselves on their success.

Bulgaria has conferred state honours on several foreign officials who helped in securing the release of the medics. Most recently, on July 9 2008, US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice was given a state honour during a brief visit to Sofia and was photographed meeting Al-Hadjudj and another two of the medics, Nasya Nenova and Snezhana Dimitrova.

According to a statement on the website of the US embassy in Sofia, the three medics thanked Rice for her support during their ordeal and for her key contribution to their release.