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If they are innocent then they should be glad to be home. If they are guilty they should be eternally grateful that they had to spend so little time in a Saudi jail.
A Somerville, Australia

They should have been brought back to jail in the UK, not to freedom and wealth. If they had been Filipina women they would have been beheaded in Saudi months ago! The young woman who was released from a Bangkok jail after being convicted of drug smuggling was also pardoned, but made to serve the rest of her sentence in the UK. WHY NOT THOSE TWO?
Norma Rutherford, Philippines

These women are still guilty, under Saudi law, of murder. To profit from selling their stories is obscene and jeopardises the plight of any other Briton in similar circumstances in the future. Nobody in the media is, to my knowledge giving exorbitant sums to Frank Gifford. This is particularly in bad taste as one of the pair still stands accused of an alleged ghoulish crime in Dundee.
Dr S Dadabhoy, United Kingdom

I would certainly like to know what really happened. It is a fascinating story and if they are not guilty then they should be able to tell us what happened.
B.Colquhoun, USA

Considering the fact that the nurses have not yet proved their innocence, they should not receive any money until that time comes. In the meantime, the money should be placed into an interest bearing account, and the interest passed on to victims of criminal assault.
Chris Smith, Singapore

Whether they are paid or not, let's remember that a life has been terminated and that someone is to blame. Surely then if these 2 are innocent, then perhaps money would be far better spent on finding who did kill her?
Marina Smith, England

Hearing the amount of money paid to these nurses simply makes me sick. But what is more disgusting is the flimsy excuse given by the editors of those newspapers that they were convicted in a "kangaroo court". Are they implying that the legal system in this country is perfect? As far as I know, innocent people do get sent to prison and criminals do get acquitted (eg. Lawrence). How much money did these people get? I would not recommend suing the newspapers because it would cost a lot of taxpayers' money. The cheapest way to get the message through is simple: everyone with a sense of decency should stop buying those newspapers. Afterall, they can only make these outrageous payouts when people finance them by buying them.
Andy Yu, UK

I do not know who is guilty and who is innocent, but who did kill Yvonne Gilford? If the nurses did kill her I hope their guilt eats them up for the rest of their life. If they did not kill her I hope they can regain their lives back.
Tracy Eggleton, Australia

No, criminals are not supposed to profit from their crimes. I am disgusted with the BBC for showing the Panorama programme, claiming the nurses were tortured. Any person who lives in a foreign country must obey the law in that particular country. The two nurses chose to live and work in Saudi, they should respect the law there, and not claim they were not getting a fair trial. I am afraid the BBC is becoming like THE SUN - full of rubbish.
E.P.Lim, UK

A good number of the replies here presume the nurses are guilty. How many of you have lived or worked in Saudi Arabia. I have. They are free because they are British. Thank Tony Blair and his team for the work they did.
K. Jackson, USA

So far as I can see there is no case against them at all. Experts seem to agree that the confessions were forced and are full of holes you could drive a bus through.The money they received for their story is little enough for what they have been through. Good luck to them both.
R/A Saunders, West Australia

By paying for the stories the media is encouraging people to commit crimes. It seems that crimes pay. There should be a law to confiscate any monies made from crimes and to reimburse the victim. Either that or restrict the media from making payments to criminals.
Lyle Tan, Canada

Although I feel very stongly that the two nurses should not profit from their story, there is the other side of the coin where the newspapers would not pay for their story if the British public were not so interested in other people's lives. After Diana's death I thought that maybe people had once and for all learned what damage can be done from newspapers. I feel that until we as a society learn to be more interested in our own lives than others people like Mary Bell and these nurses will carry on profiting from their cirmes.
Mrs Anna Hussey, England

The only way that this 'cheque book journalism' will stop is when a newspaper's sales go down if they pay out for this type of story. Listening to the 'editors' of the papers involved on Radio 5 this morning anyone would think they were doing it to bring out the 'truth' , but I think they will find people are not as stupid as they think they are. Everyone knows it's about circulation , they couldn't care less about the people involved.
Jerry Short, UK

No-one with dubious behaviour should benefit from any articles ,any fee paid should or could be paid to an appropriate charity.
P.T Glynn, England

Why shouldn't they be paid for telling the truth about what happened, when the brother of the murdered woman was paid in order to stop the death sentence regardless of their inocence... Surely that is MOST obscene!!!!!
R.A.Whitehead, England

We see enough "sensationalism" in the news. I would prefer to hear each side of the story and not a biased personal view. Definitely they should not profit from this. It does little to discourage people from performing wrong acts and then hoping to gain from them.
Lisa Gassen, USA

It's really disgusting, people, who are criminals, are allowed to make money from their stories, where is justice?
Aelita Zein, UK

It is a free society. And every one has right to make money through legal means so what is wrong if they make money?
Varun, USA

In no way should those nurses be allowed to profit from the pain they have caused. If they had not been convicted, certainly sell the story! but they were convicted, and no one should be rewarded for causing pain.
C Skaggs, USA

I lived in Saudi Arabia for 5 years and I accept the nurses' stories 100%. I heard stuff there that did not get out.
Robert C. Carr, USA

These evil women killed a person in cold blood and now they are going to tell us that they where tortured and forced to confess. I am disgusted to see British tabloid editors defending these women. If anyone should receive money, it should be the victim's family, who are supposedly still waiting.
Kire Jolevski, Australia

The nurses may have been pardoned by King Fahd but under Saudi law their guilt remains. Until such time as it can clearly be shown they are innocent they should not be allowed to profit from their experiences.
Philip Dew, Bahrain

I don't see why not. The victim's brother allegedly did, so why can't the two nurses if someone's willing to pay? In any case, all their money might end up paying for legal bills.
Ray Marsh, Australia

Why shouldn't these ladies recover something from their terrible experience? They were convicted by a kangaroo court system that would not pass muster in any civilised country in the world. I don't know if they are guilty or not - I DO know that the Saudi verdict wasn't worth the paper it was written on. If anything, it's this government who should be ashamed of its relations with countries like Saudi Arabia, undemocratic police states where minimum standards of human decency and behaviour seem to be unknown. Let's stop excusing such behaviour with claims of 'cultural differences' simply to justify doing business with people we should be ashamed even of associating with.
John Luby, Scotland

So the papers would say that it would have been OK to have paid money for the story from the Birmingham Six, while they were still convicted, merely because they said they were innocent and the papers believed them, irrespective of what the courts decide? It seems that they believe that only the papers should decide whether a person is guilty or not, especially if they have been convicted by a foreign court. It seems to smack of racism, i.e. justice cannot exist in countries other than the UK.
Stuart Gale, UK

It is almost inconceivable that weeks after convicted murderer Mary Bell was vilified and hounded from her home by the British tabloid press for apparently receiving payment for telling her story, the same people are waving obscene sums of money at two other convicted murderers for precisely the same thing - the British press no longer makes any pretence of possessing decency, honesty and justice. Any residual sense of integrity has surely been lost now and hopefully, their readers will recognise and reject this appalling double standard. Also, do overseas systems of justice count for nothing? Because they are British, are they automatically innocent? Who killed Yvonne Gilford?
J Bassett, Australia

The newspapers will publish anything that will increase circulation no matter how sick.
Laurie Clayton, UK

They are convicted killers and should be treated as such. They should not be able to profit from their crime and the media frenzy, including the Panorama programme is inappropriate.
David Ross, UK

Although I agree with Jackie Minter in that there is something morally distasteful about those who have committed a crime being able to sell their stories, I have to disagree with her views on the press. The problem lies in human nature. People want to read about this sort of thing. I do not feel, however, that this is any reason to prevent the press having the freedom to report what they feel and the truth as both they see it and other people choose to present it.
Josephine Nolan, UK

These nurses are criminals. They are pardoned by mercy. They have no right to earn money from the crime they have committed. If they got money, then everybody should commit crime and earn money from media. We should discourage crime.
Frank Schembri, Canada

They were convicted in court of murder on the basis of persuasive evidence. Their evidence, that they were threatened with beatings and rape in order to extract false confessions, does not stack up with well known Saudi attitudes to Westerners. One of them is about to be tried in Scotland for stealing and using a credit card from a terminally ill patient. Is it therefore so unbelievable that there is evidence she did the same after this crime?
Ian Pratt, UK

It's disgusting that criminals continue to be allowed to profit from their crimes in this way. We saw it recently with Mary Bell and I thought the outrage that it caused would stop it happening again. The real problem lies with Britain's lack of control over the press. We have to tighten the reins over the press or else these outrages will continue.
Jackie Minter, UK

Why shouldn't they be paid for their stories? If papers want them then it is only right the women receive money for their material. It doesn't change their status of criminals and therefore does not do them any good in a lasting sense. For the rest of their lives, they will suffer under the weight of their conviction and no amount of money can make that better.
John Balantyne, UK

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