HIV Death Sentence

On May 6th 2004, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death by firing squad in Libya after conviction for intentionally infecting more than 400 children with the AIDS virus in an experiment to find a cure.

The following appeared on www.reuters.co.uk on 6/6/04

Libya hits out at West in "AIDS plot" case

By Tom Heneghan

TALLOIRES, France (Reuters) - Western countries criticising Libya for sentencing five Bulgarian nurses to death should show compassion for the 426 children they were convicted of infecting with the deadly HIV virus, Libya says.

Speaking at a symposium in the Lake Annecy resort town of Talloires in eastern France, Libyan Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem denied he was offering a deal to ease the death sentence by firing squad, which he said was handed down last month after a fair trial by a court in Benghazi.

"I'm not suggesting a deal, but a show of compassion so the families of the victims at least will feel that people are sharing with them the suffering inflicted on them," Ghanem told journalists on Sunday.

He declined to elaborate on how this could be done and what effect it could have.

Tripoli, which has been seeking closer ties to the West and has promised a quick solution to the issue, was under strong pressure from families of the children infected by blood contaminated with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, he said.

The European Union, the United States and the human rights group Amnesty International have joined Bulgaria in denouncing the sentence as unacceptable.

Libya has made substantial payments to the families of victims of the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing and 1999 downing of a French plane over Niger as part of its recent drive to mend fenced with Western countries.

The Bulgarian nurses dispute is a hurdle to Libya joining an EU economic partnership with Mediterranean region countries, which could bring Tripoli more trade and aid.

The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were detained in 1999 and charged with "uncontrollable murder aimed at destabilising the country and deliberately starting an epidemic."

In 2001, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said the children were infected as part of an experiment ordered by the U.S. or Israeli intelligence services.

EU aspirant Bulgaria has slammed the trial as unfair, saying there was no hard evidence except for confessions from two nurses held without council for a year before being indicted.

The nurses and doctor pleaded not guilty, insisting the epidemic that Tripoli says has killed more than 40 children since 1999 started before they went to work in Benghazi.

Ghanem, an economic reformer who has spearheaded Libya's opening to the outside world, criticised his country's critics for not accepting the court ruling as valid.

"They claim that our courts are not good," he said at the symposium run by the Boston-based Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy where he earned a PhD in economics.

"They are talking all the time about the rule of law and due process -- and this is what we think we have done," he said.

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