Security services from nearly 20 countries worked to help free six foreign medics accused of infecting children with HIV in Libya, Bulgaria’s intelligence chief Kircho Kirov said on July 30 2007.

Libya allowed the medics to return home July 24 2007, where they were immediately pardoned by Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov, Agence-France Presse (AFP) said.

Kirov told local 24 Chassa daily that the six Bulgarian medics were only a very small part of a large “hurricane” of international interests centred on Libya, including arms sales and oil concessions.

Kirov said that a top official at UK overseas intelligence service MI6, Mark Allan, put the intelligence chiefs of Libya and Bulgaria in contact with each other.

Kirov had five meetings with then Libyan intelligence head Moussa Koussa, in Libya, Rome, Paris and London. Talks were continued between Kirov and Koussa’s successor, Abdallah Sanoussi, who is also the brother-in-law of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Kirov said that his intelligence service had contacts with “about 20 services” abroad, including Israel’s Mossad.
Kirov also named former British prime minister Tony Blair as a participant in negotiations about the medics’ release.

Several Arab countries were involved as well, including “our Palestinian friends”, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco, which “provided information and used their influence” on Libya, said Kirov.