LIBYA: Libya lifts death sentences on medics in HIV case

Foreign medics accused of infecting children with HIV in Libya may soon be freed after the country's Judicial Council commuted their death sentences. Bulgaria's official response to Libya's court ruling has been positive, but those close to the accused are viewing it with cautious optimism. Libya on Tuesday (July 17) commuted death sentences on five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of deliberately infecting children with HIV, raising hopes they would soon be freed after eight years in jail. A compensation settlement was made earlier in the day to 460 families of HIV-positive Libyan children, 1 million U.S. dollars (USD) per family. A lawyer for the six medics, Othman Bizanti, said earlier in the day he had hoped his clients would be allowed to return to their countries shortly. Their release would remove a major obstacle to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's return to the international stage after decades of diplomatic isolation. The six were sentenced to death last year after being convicted of intentionally starting an HIV epidemic at a children's hospital in the city of Benghazi. They say they are innocent and that confessions central to their case were extracted under torture. Foreign HIV experts say the infections started before the six arrived at the hospital and were more likely to be the result of poor hygiene. The victims' families have said the case was part of a Western attempt to undermine Muslims and Libya. Fifty-six of the children have died, arousing widespread anger in Libya. The High Judicial Council, which is the country's highest judicial body and has the power to commute sentences or issue pardons, took over the case last week after Libya's Supreme Court upheld the death sentences. "The High Judicial Council decided to commute the death sentences against the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor to life-imprisonment terms," it said in a brief statement. Ahead of the ruling, relatives of the jailed Bulgarian nurses were invited to the French embassy in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia along with some of their lawyers, Arab relations specialists and others involved with the case. The French ambassador to Bulgaria Etienne du Poncins had this message for Libya: "We are going to make clear for the Libyan authorities, that there is not going to be a normalisation in relations between France and Libya and between Libya and the EU until the Bulgarian nurses and the doctor are back in Bulgaria." Bulgaria and its allies in the EU and the United States say Libya has used the medics as scapegoats to deflect criticism of a dilapidated health care sector. Bulgarian's foreign minister said on Tuesday the ruling by Libya's highest judicial body to commute the death sentences of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor was a "positive step" and urged Tripoli to free them. "This decision of the High Judicial Council of Libya is a hugely positive step, but we will consider the case closed when the nurses come to Bulgaria. This decision revokes the worst - the death sentences - and opens opportunities for activating the judicial agreement," said Bulgaria's Minister Of Foreign Affairs And Deputy Prime Minister Ivailo Kalfin. "The most important thing is for the nurses to come back to Bulgaria. I look at this decision from this point of view, it revokes the worst scenario," Kalfin added. But some of the medics' relatives who are staging a protest outside the Libyan embassy in Sofia were less pleased. "I am not pleased, because a life sentence still exists," said Ivailo Nikolchovski, a son of one of the accused nurses. "Some people won't understand that they are innocent because there are talks of compensation. 'Why are compensations being paid, if they are innocent?', some people will ask. And I don't blame them. Politics is dirty game, this is what happens with innocent people, when politics is involved."

ITN Source | July 18, 2007

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