Worried Bulgaria Awaits Libyan HIV Trial Verdict

A Libyan court is expected to announce this weekend its verdict in the trial of six Bulgarian medics and a Palestinian doctor charged with deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV. The prosecutor has sought the death sentence.

Detained in Tripoli in 1999, the defendants -- five Bulgarian female nurses and one male doctor -- are accused of intentionally infecting 393 children in a Benghazi hospital with blood products contaminated with HIV. Their actions are believed by Libyan prosecutors to be a part of a conspiracy by foreign intelligence forces to undermine Libyan security and its role in the Arab world.

All defendants, including nine Libyans also charged, have pleaded not guilty. Two nurses recently alleged they had been tortured in prison and made confessions under duress, which they revoked at trial. Libya has denied the allegations of torture.

Libya has a two-tier judicial system in which the Court of Appeal could overrule the local court ruling. In cases of death sentences, a further review by the Supreme Court is allowed, and its ruling is final. The medics' Libyan lawyer, Osman Byzanti, has promised to appeal convictions but said that such appeals could take an indefinite time. "No one can say how long it could take for the Court of Appeal to rule on the case," Byzanti told Reuters by telephone from Tripoli. "It could be a month, or two months, or a year."

Bulgaria has pinned its hopes on the son of Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, Seif al-Islam, head of the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, who agreed to serve as an observer at the trial. Last year, he played a key role in brokering the release of Western hostages kidnapped in the Philippines. Bulgarian officials have said that al-Islam could play a pivotal role in the crisis and that "For us it is very important that he has expressed a positive attitude."

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