Medical personnel granted reprieve by Libyan court

FIVE Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor at the centre of intense international negotiations won a reprieve when Libya's highest court overturned their death sentences on charges they deliberately infected children with AIDS.

The US and European Union have made it clear that their future relations with Moammar Gadhafi depend upon the outcome of the case, but the Libyan leader faces high emotions at home, where relatives of the infected children angrily protested Sunday's decision in Tripoli.

The ruling came three days after US, European and Libyan negotiators reached a deal to set up a fund to help families of the 426 children infected with HIV in the 1990s. About 50 of the children have died, according to a lawyer for the families.

The US and European Union had accused Libya of trumping up the charges to divert attention from poor hygiene at its hospitals. The court's chief judge on Sunday described "irregularities" in the case.

Gadhafi is eager to improve ties with the West and was believed to be looking for a face-saving way out.

The health workers were accused of deliberately infecting the children at a Benghazi hospital as part of an experiment. The workers said they were tortured to extract confessions.

In the ruling, the supreme court's chief judge, Ali al-Alous, said prosecutors had agreed with defence lawyers that there were "irregularities" in the arrests and interrogations of the medical workers.

Bulgaria welcomed the verdict as a "positive sign" and said it hoped for a quick retrial.

"The Libyan court's decision is an encouraging step toward a final recognition of the innocence of our compatriots," said Bulgaria's parliament speaker, Georgi Pirinski.

The defendants did not attend the court session. A date for the retrial was not immediately set.

In 2003, Libya agreed to compensate families of the 270 victims of the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland. It also scrapped its nuclear programme, handing its material over to the US and UN

In response, the US lifted 23-year-old travel restrictions, invited American companies to return to the oil-rich nation and encouraged Tripoli to open a diplomatic office in Washington. But Washington has made clear the nurses' case is a key sticking point that must be resolved before a US embassy reopens in Tripoli, a top goal for the Libyan leader.

"There should be no confusion in the Libyan government's mind that those nurses ought to be not only spared . . . but out of prison," US president George Bush said in October. The European Union also said its relations with Libya hinged on the fate of the Bulgarians.

Meanwhile, the families of the infected children have demonstrated at every court session and decried repeated delays in carrying out the original sentence of execution by firing squad.

Relatives, some carrying their children, scuffled with riot police surrounding the court during Sunday's session and tried to force their way inside.