Anger As Libyan Retrial Hands Death Sentence to Medics

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of deliberately infecting hundreds of children with HIV were sentenced to death for a second time by a court in Libya yesterday, drawing widespread international condemnation.

The UN human rights office urged Libya not to execute them, saying there were "very serious and credible concerns" about the fairness of the trial.

The six deny infecting 426 children with HIV at the hospital in the late 1990s. More than 50 have since died, say Libyan authorities. Many western diplomats and scientists believe poor hygiene standards were responsible for the infections and that the medics became scapegoats.

After being arrested almost eight years ago, they were first sentenced to death in May 2004. Under international pressure, Libya's supreme court later ordered a retrial which led to yesterday's ruling.

Last month, 114 Nobel laureates wrote an open letter saying that critical evidence had been dismissed, including some that showed the outbreak was caused by re-use of syringes and poor hygiene.

That was followed by a paper in the science magazine Nature which studied the origin of the strains of HIV and Hepatitis C viruses infecting the children at the hospital and found they were present long before the nurses arrived in March 1998.

The International Council of Nurses and the World Medical Association said in a joint statement that the ruling turns a blind eye to the science and evidence that points clearly the children having been infected well before the workers arrived.

Bulgaria said it was "extremely concerned" by the ruling.

The verdict delighted the children's relatives. "Justice has been done. We are happy," said Subhy Abdullah, whose daughter Mona, seven, died from Aids contracted at the Benghazi hospital. "They should be executed quickly."

The Libyan justice minister, Ali Omar Hassaoui, said the six could appeal.

The now highly politicised case is complicating Libya's effort to normalise its international ties. Many doubt the medics will be executed, though Libya could drive a hard bargain in return for sparing them.

Tripoli wants €10m (£6.7m) for each infected child's family. Bulgaria and its allies reject this, saying it would amount to an admission of guilt, but have offered a fund to treat the children in Europe.

"Now the real negotiations will begin," George Joffe, a north Africa expert at Cambridge University told Reuters. "It depends on what the international community is prepared to pay."