Diplomatic victory Gaddafi once gave to former French president

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy is under investigation for allegedly receiving illegal funds from late Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi to finance his 2007 election campaign. The investigation has reminded many people of Sarkozy's successful negotiation with Gaddafi for the extradition of six medical workers, including five Bulgarians and one Palestinian, just months after he took office in May 2007, according toTime.

The men were accused of deliberately infecting 426 children with HIV in 1998 at the El-Fatih Children's Hospital in Benghazi, Libya. By August 2007, 56 had died. Despite letters from leading experts from around the world to the Libyan court, saying that the medical staff was not at fault but rather poor hygiene at the hospital, the six were sentenced to death. After they appealed, Libya's Supreme Court upheld the sentence in early July 2007. International efforts to free them have stalled.

Sarkozy launched a secret campaign to persuade Gaddafi and made great progress when Libya decided to commute the sentences of the six to life imprisonment on 17 July 2007. Within two weeks, Sarkozy sent his wife, Cecilia, and French officials to accompany the EU foreign policy chief to Tripoli twice to discuss the situation of the six prisoners.

On 24 July 2007, Sarkozy announced that Libya had agreed to extradite the prisoners to Bulgaria. They left Libya on a French government plane. In fact, Libya did not expunge the medical staff, but allowed them to serve their sentences in Bulgaria, in accordance with a 1985 prisoner exchange agreement between the two countries. Immediately after landing in Sofia, they were pardoned by Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov (the Palestinian medical staff had been granted Bulgarian citizenship a month earlier).

To this end, France has signed agreements with Libya on security, health, border management assistance and scholarships for Libyan students in the EU. France has also signed an agreement to sell MILAN anti-tank missiles worth $230 million and three civilian nuclear power stations to Libya. However, Sarkozy said that the arms and nuclear deals were not related to negotiating the extradition of prisoners.

The EU has said it will not pay compensation to the affected children. However, the European Commission has pledged $461 million to the Benghazi International Fund to support the treatment of patients and the construction of a new children’s hospital in Benghazi. Bulgaria has also forgiven Libya’s $57 million debt.

Immediately after Libya extradited the prisoners, Sarkozy immediately visited the country and met Gaddafi the following day. He then invited Gaddafi to visit France for a five-day visit in December 2007, despite objections from many French and European officials.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner also expressed hesitation about the visit. "I have to welcome him because it is necessary," he said, implying that Gaddafi's visit was in response to the extradition of prisoners.

Sarkozy's allies also stressed that this was a reciprocal gesture. "Libya's return of Bulgarian medical staff is worth a visit," argued former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov sent his thanks to Sarkozy, saying he appreciated the active role of the French President and his wife in helping their country's citizens. Sarkozy was warmly welcomed when he visited Bulgaria in October 2007.

Analysts say the successful rescue has given Sarkozy a major diplomatic victory. He has shown himself to be willing to work with difficult countries such as Iran, Syria and Libya. At the same time, he has shown himself to be a responsible leader who deserves the respect of the international community.

When answering many people's questions about why Sarkozy made such an effort to rescue people who were not citizens of his country, Sarkozy said: "In my heart, those nurses are French. They are French because they were wrongly accused, they suffered hardship and we had to take them away from there."