VARIOUS: 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. 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 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. 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." 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. 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.

ITN Source | July 18, 2007

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