Notes from Hell: A Bulgarian Nurse in Libya

“I have no expectations for the future. I am not afraid of death … I am a woman who has come back from hell” … then he slapped me. He barked something in Arabic and they all immediately surrounded me. They dragged me to the corridor again. The ropes tightened around my wrists. They tied them around my ankles and hung me with my head down. “Well, now you’re going to tell us everything,” my tormentor growled. He pulled out a thick cable wrapped in black insulation and thrashed me. The first blow cut through my heels with pain I had never experienced before. This was just the beginning … the longest night of my life had begun. My name is Valya Chervenyashka. Maybe you have heard about me. I am a nurse by trade. Now I’m 54 years old. Eight of them I spent behind the bars of several prisons, accused of mass murder. Three times I have been sentenced to death. Coarse voices have cursed me, unknown hands have insulted my body, hundreds of throats have called my name, thousands of hearts have passionately prayed for my death and millions of people from all kinds of countries have seen my face … few people are indifferent to me. Valya Chervenyashka was born in poverty-stricken Vratsa, Bulgaria. She is married and has two daughters. Her whole life has been dedicated to nursing, most of it caring for children in Bulgarian hospitals. In the 1980s she was posted to Tarhuna, Libya where she received awards for her work with children. In 1998, she was arrested in Benghazi, Libya, transferred to a Tripoli jail, charged with conspiring to deliberately infect over 400 children with HIV and sentenced to death. Notes from Hell is her story, covering a decade of torture, cruelty and absolute despair. Nikolay Yordanov was born in Varna, Bulgaria. He is television, documentary and film screenwriter and editor and has worked on such shows as Fear Factor, Star Academy, Psychic Challenge and Extreme Makeover. He has also worked on a variety of advertisements and music videos. Notes from Hell is his first book.