Libyan court to hear Bulgarian nurses’ appeal

By Tsvetelia Ilieva

SOFIA (Reuters) – Libya’s Supreme Court is to hear an
appeal on Sunday by five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian
doctor, sentenced to death by firing squad for infecting Libyan
children with HIV.

The court had initially set the hearing for January 31, but
following a defense request to speed up the trial brought it
forward to December 25 and Bulgarian officials said final
verdicts might come through by the end of the year.

The hearing comes amid rising hope in Bulgaria that the
nurses and the doctor, in jail since 1999, could soon be freed,
after Libya and Bulgaria agreed earlier this week to set up a
fund to help the families of the sick children.

Bulgarian President has said he hopes this Christmas will
be the nurses’ last in Libya and that he has reasons to expect
a breakthrough in the talks for their release.

In a case that become a hurdle to Tripoli’s efforts to
improve ties with the West, the five nurses and the doctor were
convicted of infecting 426 Libyan children with the HIV virus
in the Mediterranean port of Benghazi.

The Palestinian doctor’s appeal will also be heard on
Sunday.

The nurses say they are 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.

Sofia, Brussels and Washington have denounced the verdicts
as unfair and have repeatedly pressed for the release of the
six medical workers, while Libya has highlighted the tragedy of
the families of the infected children.

The two sides came closer last week with a plan to set up a
support fund for 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.

But EU aspirant Bulgaria said the set up of the fund would
not automatically trigger the release of the nurses.

Sofia 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
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.