The Five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya for allegedly infecting children with AIDS plan to run for a seat in the European Parliament in May.

The five were included Friday as the top candidates in a list of submitted to Bulgaria's central election commission by the Order, Rule of Law and Justice party (RSS) for the May 20 EU-wide poll, Dpa reported.

They were reportedly turned down by Bulgaria's main parties before turning to the RSS, which is not represented in the Bulgarian or European parliaments.

The RSS says it hopes their election could help the nurses be freed, but Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin on Friday criticized the party's move, saying it could hinder rather than help efforts to get the women released.

The five nurses have been held in a Libyan prison since February 1999, accused of intentionally infecting 400 Libyan children with the HIV virus that causes AIDS. A Libyan court in December 2006 upheld the death sentence first imposed by a lower court in May 2004.

The verdict, coming after what was internationally criticized as a severely flawed procedure, was among other things based on the confession of the defendants who allegedly had been coerced by torture. Experts blamed the outbreak of AIDS at a children's hospital in Benghazi on terrible hygenic conditions that existed before the Bulgarian nurses arrived.

Both the EU - of which Bulgaria became a member at the start of this year - and the United States have called for the nurses to be released.

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