Half of the 2006 sittings in the trial of the Bulgarian nurses charged with intentional HIV infection in Libya were delayed because of the nurses’ attorneys, Deputy Foreign Minister Feim Chaushev said.

Chaushev called for more active involvement on behalf of the lawyers, Novinar newspaper reported. They needed to be well-prepared so that procedures were concluded fast and the eight-year stay of the Bulgarians in Libyan prison was over soon.

If all sittings were conducted on the scheduled date the trial could have ended in September, Chaushev said.

A week ago a sitting was postponed due to the illness of lawyer Osman Bizanti. Bizanti was hospitalised hours before the sitting and the court rejected the written defence strategy of the two Bulgarian lawyers.

The co-ordinator of the Bulgarians’ lawyers Trayan Markovski said that pleading in written form was not convincing enough.

Markovski refused commenting on the claims concerning the work of the lawyers. The team was doing its best for a positive outcome of the trial and was not going to make a statement concerning the involvement of other institutions, Markovski said.