Libyan court confirms death penalty for foreign medics
LIBYA: Libya's Supreme Court confirmed the death penalty
against six foreign medics convicted of infecting hundreds of children
with the AIDS virus, but a reprieve may still be possible in the case
that has dragged on for eight years.
The five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor were not in court
for the verdict, announced the day after a compensation deal was reached
with the children's families that could see the death sentences commuted
to prison terms.
"In the name of the people, the court has decided not to accept the
defendants' appeal and confirms the death penalty against them," chief
judge Fathi Dahan said.
Libya's top legal body is due to meet next week to examine the
compensation deal negotiated by the Kadhafi Foundation, a charitable
body headed by the son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.
"The Supreme Judicial Council is going to meet on Monday and it will
be up to this body to cancel or commute the verdict pronounced today by
the supreme court," foreign minister Abdel Rahman Shalgham told
reporters.
Nurses Snezhana Dimitrova, Nasya Nenova, Valya Cherveniashka,
Valentina Siropulo and Kristiana Valcheva and Palestinian doctor Ashraf
Juma Hajuj - who now has Bulgarian nationality - have been behind bars
since February 1999 but have always protested their innocence. They were
convicted of infecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood at a hospital
in the Mediterranean city of Benghazi and sentenced to death in May
2004. Fifty-six of the children have since died.
But foreign health experts have cited poor hygiene as the probable
cause of the epidemic in Benghazi, Libya's second city.
Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose country holds the EU's
rotating presidency, expressed sorrow over the verdict and appealed for
clemency. Bulgaria's Deputy Foreign Minister Feim Chaushev also said
Sofia was pursuing talks with Tripoli.
"From now on everything is in the hands of Libya's Supreme Judicial
Council. Our efforts continue and we continue talks with the Libyan side
for finding a positive solution to the case," Chaushev told Inforadio.
Bulgarian lawyers for the nurses condemned the verdict. "I am
devastated. Justice was not done," lawyer Hari Haralambiev told
Bulgarian national radio by telephone from Tripoli.
Tripoli, Thursday, AFP |
