Medics in Libya Aids trial are sentenced to death

LIBYA:A Libyan court sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death yesterday for infecting more than 400 children with HIV. The verdict drew condemnation from the European Union, Washington and leading human rights groups.

Tripoli's supreme court quashed the same verdict after a previous trial, and the medics plan to lodge another appeal after yesterday's decision, which sparked tears and anger in Bulgaria and celebration in Libya among relatives of the infected children.

Some of the nurses say they were tortured in jail and deny any responsibility for the children's illness, while western medical experts have repeatedly told Libya that tests suggest the accused are innocent, and had probably not even arrived in the North African country when the children were infected.

"We are all heartbroken," said Zorka Anachkova, the mother of one of the nurses, Christiana Valcheva. "Can someone tell me what evil Christiana has ever done?"

Polina Dimitrova, whose mother, Snezhana, is another of the nurses, added: "This is such a disgrace. I simply cannot believe that such injustice can be done. It was not enough they sentenced innocent people, but they now confirm it. I can only imagine how they feel - this must have crushed them."

But while the nurses' ordeal continued - almost eight years after they were first arrested - there were scenes of jubilation outside the courthouse in Tripoli.

"God is great!" shouted Ibrahim Mohammed al-Aurabi, the father of an infected child, as soon as he heard the verdict. "Long live the Libyan judiciary!"

Dozens of people gathered, jostling the defence lawyer as he walked in, and holding poster-sized pictures of the children, along with placards that read, "Death for the children killers", and "HIV made in Bulgaria!".

Subhy Abdullah, whose seven-year-old daughter, Mona, died from Aids contracted at the hospital in the northern town of Benghazi, said: "Justice has been done. We are happy. They should be executed quickly."

Prosecutors initially accused the women of involvement in a CIA and Mossad plot to undermine Libya, but now suggest they infected 426 children - about 50 of whom have already died - in a macabre medical experiment.

International HIV specialists say poor hygiene at the hospital is probably to blame for the outbreak, and that Libyan ruler Muammar Gadafy is using the medics as scapegoats for the failings of his own health system.

But while the case hinders his rapprochement with the West, Col Gadafy appears unwilling to release the women and make a tacit admission that Libya's health and judicial procedures are a shambles, a move that would also enrage the city of Benghazi.

Critics say he wants to regain some of the pride and $2.7 billion (€2 billion) lost in paying compensation for the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing, and he is thought to be under pressure from his security forces to swap the medics for the Libyan intelligence agent jailed near Glasgow for blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland.

A White House spokesman said the US was "disappointed" by yesterday's court ruling.Benita Fererro-Waldner, external relations commissioner for the EU - which Bulgaria joins next month - said Brussels "simply cannot accept this verdict and trusts that the matter will now be referred to a higher authority".

She said she hoped the medics would be freed in the "spirit of mutual respect and humanitarian compassion which characterised the intense discussions held between the European Union and other partners with the families of the Benghazi children."

Most analysts said a compensation deal was the most likely solution.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dermot Ahern, said in a statement that he was deeply disappointed and disturbed by the verdict. "I call upon the government of Libya to find a means to resolve this issue."