Italian lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano, one of the defenders of Saddam Hussein, requested from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddaffi the freedom of the five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death for intentional HIV infection in Libya.

Di Stefano mailed and faxed his request to the Libyan embassies in Washington and Rome, Bulgarian National Radio reported.

The Italian lawyer said that he was appealing as an individual uninvolved in the trial. Letting the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian medic sentenced on the same charges go home was in the interest of the Libyan people, said Di Stefano.

The nurses spent many years in prison already, Di Stefano said.

Changing the death sentences with another verdict was the right decision, said he. Such decision did not express weakness and was going to serve as an example for other cases.