Libyan Says Six Won't be Executed

At their supreme court-ordered retrial in a Libya last month, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death for infecting hundreds of hospitalized children in Benghazi with HIV. Now, however, the son of Libyan leader Mammary Gaddafi has told a Bulgarian newspaper, "There will be no executions. I hope there will be a happy ending soon. My father is also against the executions," said Saif al-Islam, who runs a charity foundation. Islam said Libya is discussing with Germany and France a plan to resolve the case, which he admitted "went in the wrong direction from the very beginning." The defendants have maintained their innocence and said their confessions were extracted under torture. AIDS experts have repeatedly cited strong scientific evidence indicating the six are innocent of the charges. Islam's comments brought an expression of optimism from Feim Chaushev, Bulgaria's deputy foreign minister: "I am inclined to see a positive signal in these assurances."

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