Mick Hartley

The Benghazi Six have been released:

Six foreign medics jailed in Libya for infecting hundreds of children with HIV have been released after an international drive to secure their freedom.

The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor left Tripoli early this morning on a flight to Sofia, accompanied by Cécilia Sarkozy, the French President’s wife. The are expected to arrive at 0700GMT.

“They have left their airport in Libya and are now flying … We expect in them in Sofia,” Feim Chaushev, the Bulgarian Deputy Foreign Minister, told Reuters.

There’s an article in the Times today, written before this latest news, about the resentment over the way Cécilia Sarkozy has hijacked the campaign to release the nurses for herself:

In Paris critics say that Mrs Sarkozy’s Libyan mission is an attempt to carve out a prominent position for the former model and communications consultant, who has, at best, limited experience of international diplomacy. In Brussels officials deplored what was perceived as a brazen attempt to seize the glory from the EU, which has taken the lead role in negotiating the nurses’ release.

Benoît Hamon, the French Socialist Party spokesman, said: “You can’t at the same time say you want to beef up Europe’s diplomatic muscle and then try to steal the victory just when the EU’s about to pull something off, and all so that Madame Sarkozy can strut around on the republican stage.

“It is extraordinary that just because Mr Sarkozy wants to find a role for his spouse, the EU should have to drag along the wife of the President in a difficult negotiation.”

Pierre Moscovici, a former Socialist European affairs minister, said that President Sarkozy was playing “the cuckoo in the nest” and trying to grab the limelight in Libya. He said: “He’s laying his eggs in someone else’s nest. Because basically France has played no part in all of this.”

That she should choose to accompany them on their flight home suggests she isn’t going to be shy about taking the credit here.