Libyan court scraps nurses’ HIV death sentences

By Salah Sarrar

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – Libya’s Supreme Court on Sunday
scrapped death sentences against five Bulgarian nurses and a
Palestinian doctor convicted of infecting children with the HIV
virus and sent the case back to a lower court for retrial.

The six, jailed since 1999, had been sentenced to death by
firing squad in a case blocking Libyan efforts to improve ties
with the West. Several diplomats said Libya was eager to put
the case behind it and return to mainstream global politics.

The Supreme Court accepted appeals against the lower court
ruling both on substance and procedure, one of their lawyers
said. The ruling followed agreement last week between Libya and
Bulgaria to set up a fund to help families of the sick
children.

The five nurses and the doctor had been convicted of
infecting 426 Libyan children with the HIV virus in Benghazi.

They had said they were innocent and their confessions were
extracted under torture. AIDS experts have said the outbreak
started before the nurses arrived and was probably caused by
poor hygiene.

“The court has accepted the appeals by the nurses and the
doctor and sends the cases back to the lower court for
retrial,” Ali Alouss, the Supreme Court presiding judge, told
an appeals hearing.

Lawyers told Reuters that meant the death sentences were
canceled and the lower court in the Mediterranean port of
Benghazi which had earlier issued the death sentences would
retry the cases.

“The Supreme Court endorsed the appeals in their substance
and technicalities. That means the court canceled the death
sentences and lower court will retry the cases and come with a
new ruling,” Mahmoud Maghribi, one of the nurses’ lawyers, told
Reuters.

Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry reacted favourably to the
ruling. A spokesman said Bulgaria hoped the retrial and the
repeal of the death sentences were “a recognition of the
serious procedural breaches in the trial.”

BITTERNESS

But families of the sick children gathered on a street near
the court to vent their anger and bitterness.

“Today’s ruling delays further the final verdict on the
cases and extends the suffering of the families. That verdict
hurts their feelings as they see their children dying slowly,”
said Mohamed Salah, a father whose daughter is sick with HIV.

The Association of the Families of the HIV Infected
Children’s chairman Ramdane Fitouri told Reuters the lower
court could reconfirm the death sentences in the retrial.

“There is no doubt this prolongs our suffering but today’s
ruling does not mean the death sentences could not be confirmed
again by the lower court. The lower court has the authority to
issue again the death sentences,” he told Reuters.

Sofia, the European Union and Washington had denounced the
earlier verdicts as unfair and repeatedly pressed for the
release of the six medical workers, while Libya had highlighted
the tragedy of the families of the infected children.

Libya had suggested the verdicts could be quashed if money
were provided to cover financial compensation for the families
of the victims and medical treatment for the infected children.

Bulgaria has said it joined the fund out of solidarity and
its participation should not be seen as an agreement to pay
compensation which could be seen as admission of guilt. It has
declined to comment on the size of the fund.

An official of the Gaddafi Charity foundation, chaired by
the influential son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Saif
al-Islam, has said that the Libyan and Bulgarian sides would
meet on Wednesday to work out the financial details for the
families of the children.

A Tripoli-based senior Western diplomat, who believes he
understands the thinking of top Libyan officials who are
handling the case, said he expected Bulgaria and Libya would
hammer out details of their agreement on financial and health
care for the children.

“The Libyan government will convince the families of the
good deal and push their representatives and lawyers to go to
the court and pronounce their pardon of the nurses and the
doctor,” he said.

The diplomat added that then the court will sentence the
nurses for life in jail.

“The Libyan government will then announce it has an
agreement with Bulgaria to extradite prisoners to spend the
prison terms at home and the nurses will fly home early next
year,” he added.

(Editing by Howard Goller)