PARIS: A Palestinian-born doctor imprisoned in Libya on charges of infecting children with AIDS has offered new and harrowing details of his incarceration, according to judicial testimony.
In his account to French judges, Doctor Ashraf al-Hajuj describes being raped by a German Shepherd, having his nails ripped off and being given electric shocks.
He was held for more than eight years along with five Bulgarian nurses in a Libyan jail -- mostly on death row -- on charges of infecting 438 children with AIDS-tainted blood. "I admitted under torture that I had contaminated the children that I had collaborated with the CIA and the Mossad (the Israeli intelligence agency). I was ready to admit everything. That was after the episode with the dog," al-Hajuj said, according to an account of his April hearing before Paris judges Philippe Jourdan et Yves Madre.
The plight of the six medics sparked international outcry, forcing Libya to commute the death sentences to life imprisonment. Frantic last-minute negotiations, led by former French first lady Cecilia Sarkozy and European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, secured their final transfer home in July 2007.
Al-Hajuj told the judges he was blindfolded during the torture sessions, which mostly took place during the beginning of his imprisonment. He was also present when the other medics were being tortured.
All six returned to Bulgaria after being released -- al-Hajuj had been given a Bulgarian passport to secure his freedom. |