Prosecutor seeks death penalty in Libya HIV case

By Salah Sarrar

TRIPOLI (Reuters) – A Libyan prosecutor demanded the death
penalty on Tuesday for five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian
doctor on trial for the second time on charges that they
infected hundreds of children with the HIV virus.

“The act was cruel, criminal and inhuman. It’s a human
catastrophe,” prosecutor Omar Abdulkhaleq told the Tripoli
court, adding that 53 of the 430 children infected had
subsequently died.

“We demand the death penalty for the accused.”

A previous trial of the six, who have been detained since
1999, ended with their conviction on charges they intentionally
infected 426 children with HIV when they worked in a hospital
in Benghazi in the late 1990s.

In December 2005, the supreme court overturned the
convictions, which had resulted in sentences of death by firing
squad, and sent the case back to a lower court. The retrial
began in May 2006.

The medics, Palestinian doctor Ashraf Alhajouj and
Bulgarians Snezhana Dimitrova, Nasya Nenova, Valentina
Siropolu, Christiana Valcheva and Valia Cherveniashka denied
the charges in both their first and second trials and have
repeatedly testified that they were tortured to make them
confess.

Abdulkhaleq added that the six had also committed offences
related to buying and selling alcohol, having illicit sexual
relations and illegally carrying out hard currency exchange.
Sex outside marriage is illegal in Libya.

The six deny those accusations.

Abdulkhaleq said without elaborating that 20 mothers of the
children had become infected with the virus through
breast-feeding their infected infants.

Bulgaria and its allies support the medics’ torture claims
and global AIDS experts say the outbreak at the Benghazi
hospital where they worked began before they arrived.

Around 50 of the HIV-infected children have died, fuelling
popular anger in Libya.

Tripoli has suggested the nurses could go free if Bulgaria
pays compensation to the children and their families, who have
demanded 4.4 billion euros ($5.5 billion). Bulgaria has refused
to pay, but has joined the United States, the EU and Libya in
agreeing to back the creation of an aid fund.

The retrial was adjourned to Sept 5.