Libyan Prosecutor Demands Death Sentences for Six Bulgarian Medics

A Libyan prosecutor demanded death sentences Monday for six Bulgarian medics charged with deliberately infecting about 400 Libyan children with HIV through blood transfusions, Bulgarian state radio reported. The demand came just days after Dr. Luc Montagnier, the co-discoverer of HIV, testified that poor hygiene likely led to the contamination. Montagnier, meeting a Bulgarian request for an international assessment, said the contamination dates to 1997 -- two years before the Bulgarians were hired to work in Libya. The Bulgarians -- five nurses and one doctor -- were arrested by Libyan police in February 1999 and were in prison until September 2002, when a high tribunal acquitted them of conspiracy charges and handed the case over to an ordinary criminal court. They have since been under house arrest.

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