SOFIA, Dec 1, 2007 (AFP) - The Palestinian-born doctor who spent eight years in a Libyan jail with five Bulgarian nurses in an AIDS scandal got married on Saturday, bringing a happy ending to his long ordeal.
Ashraf Hajuj, 38, wed his Bulgarian fiancee Olia, a 31-year-old construction engineer he met two days after his release in July.
His released followed eight years in Libya during which he was tortured and twice sentenced to death, despite always claiming his innocence.
"I survived a disaster. I nearly lost my life. But I believe in destiny: I met the right person, I am really in love with her and she is in love with me," Hajuj told AFP.
The bride, in a splendid white gown, held back tears during the civil ceremony Saturday afternoon, which was celebrated by Sofia's charismatic and popular mayor Boiko Borisov.
Hajuj's parents and two sisters, who fled Libya for the Netherlands in 2005, attended the wedding, as did the Dutch and French ambassadors. Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov sent a message of congratulations to the couple.
France was credited with playing a key role in the liberation of the six medics in July.
Three of the nurses who were imprisoned alongside Hajuj for over eight years were also present at the ceremony, describing it as a sign that their lives had returned to normal.
"We have a good life now and Ashraf's wedding reflects that," nurse Nasya Nenova said with a triumphant smile.
Bulgaria's European Affairs Minister Gergana Grancharova and former Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, who is Jewish, served as witnesses to Hajuj, a Muslim, and his fiancee, who is Christian.
"There is only one God," the couple said.
Hajuj and Olia met through a common friend barely two days after he returned from Libya on July 24.
The doctor and the five Bulgarian nurses had spent eight and a half years in a Libyan prison -- over half of it on death row -- on charges of infecting more than 400 Libyan children with AIDS-tainted blood at the Benghazi hospital where they worked.
The six always maintained their innocence and said they were tortured with electric shocks, beaten and abused to force them to confess to their alleged crime. International health experts testified in court that the AIDS outbreak was a result of poor hygiene at the hospital.
The case sparked international outcry and Libya's Supreme Judicial Council finally commuted the medics' death sentences to life in jail, following a multi-million-dollar deal with the infected children's families.
Hajuj was then granted Bulgarian citizenship so that he could benefit from an exchange of prisoners' agreement between Bulgaria and Libya.
On July 24, the six medics were released and flown to Sofia by European External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and former French first lady Cecilia Sarkozy, where they were immediately pardoned by Bulgarian President Georgy Parvanov.
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