Nurses in Libya AIDS Case Face Retrial

In Tripoli, Thursday is set as the start date for the retrial of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who were sentenced to death for deliberately infecting hospitalized children with HIV. The medics, who were arrested in 1999 and convicted on May 6, 2004, have maintained their innocence. Their death sentences were quashed on Christmas Day. In seeking a way out of the impasse, Sofia and Tripoli have set up a fund to fight AIDS in Libya and to support the families of the infected children. Within the next two weeks, the children will be sent for treatment to hospitals in France and Italy, according to Idriss Lagha, spokesperson for the families. The fund represents a compromise between Libya, which has demanded compensation, and Bulgaria, which has insisted the nurses are innocent and refused to pay anything other than humanitarian aid.

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