Prosecutors in HIV trial demand death sentence

Libyan prosecutors today demanded the death sentence for five Bulgarian medics and a Palestinian doctor accused of intentionally infecting Libyan children with HIV.

The five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian are charged with infecting more than 400 children with HIV – the virus that causes AIDS – at a hospital in the Libyan city of Benghazi. At least 50 of the children have died.

“Infecting the children with the HIV virus is a savage and inhumane crime and a humanitarian catastrophe,” prosecutor Omar Abdel-Khaleq told the court.

The six defendants, held in Libya since 1999, were convicted on the same charge and sentenced to death in 2004, but Libya’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial in December after international protests that the trial was unfair. They denied the charges.

Luc Montagnier – the co-discoverer of HIV – testified last year before a Benghazi court that the virus was active in the hospital before the Bulgarian nurses began their contracts there.

Human rights groups have accused Libya of concocting the charges against the foreigners to cover up unhygienic conditions at Libyan hospitals.

The judge adjourned court hearings until September 5.