Six condemned to death for infecting children with HIV

A Libyan court today condemned to death five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor for deliberately infecting 400 children with the HIV virus.

The nurses and doctor have the right to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Presiding judge Mahmoud Hawissa read out the verdict in a seven-minute hearing in a Tripoli court at the end of the defendants’ second trial.

The six defendants, detained for nearly seven years, had previously been convicted and condemned to death, but Libyan judges granted them a retrial after international protests over the fairness of the proceedings. Bulgaria contends the children were infected by unhygienic practices at their Libyan hospital.

The long trial of the six foreign medical workers has become a bone of contention in Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi’s efforts to rebuild ties with the West. Europe and the United States have called for their release, indicating that future relations with Libya would be affected by today’s verdict.

However, Libyans strongly supported a conviction. Some 50 relatives of the infected children – about 50 of whom have already died of Aids – waited outside the court early today, holding poster-sized pictures of their children and bearing placards that read “Death for the children killers” and “HIV made in Bulgaria”.

When the Supreme Court ordered a retrial in December 2005, friends and relatives rioted in Benghazi – the Libyan city where the children were infected in a state hospital.