The six Bulgarian medics who were sentenced to death for intentional HIV infection in Libya were tortured into confessing guilt, the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddaffi, Seif al-Islam, said in an interview for Al Jazeera television.
Al-Islam's announcement provoked a reaction in the media worldwide. The issue featured among of the day's topics in many publications, Bulgarian National Radio reported.
French newspapers Le Monde, Express and Tribune referred to international information agencies quoting al Islam. The subject also appears in the UK Guardian and International Herald Tribune, the New York Times, USA Today and Washington Post.
All of them quoted al-Islam's words, that the medics had been tortured with electricity and had been threatened that their families will also be injured.
Al-Islam, however, denied some of the claims of Ashraf Alhajouj, the Palestinian medic with Bulgarian citizenship.
Ashraf told media that all of them had been tortured like animals and were not going to forget it. He said that everything he already described before in the media had really happened.
