Brussels, 18/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - The decision made on Tuesday evening by the Libyan High Judicial Council to commute the death sentence given to five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor (a naturalised Bulgarian citizen) to life imprisonment is “a first relief” for Commission President José Manuel Barroso and the External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who now hope to see the prisoners returned to European soil “as soon as possible”. “We will now study the ruling and its implications with the Libyan authorities and others involved. But we do hope that this tragic and long-running case can be brought to a speedy solution”, they add in a press statement released on Tuesday evening. Bulgaria was due on Wednesday to file a repatriation request to Tripoli for the six prisoners, who have already spent eight years in prison for allegedly injecting hundreds of children with the AIDS virus in a paediatric hospital in Benghazi. (ab)