Medics given death sentence for HIV infections
Court rules in favour of death sentence
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Tuesday, 19, Dec 2006 11:06
A Libyan court has sentenced to death this morning five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor for deliberately infecting hundreds of children with the HIV virus.
The six medics were originally sentenced to death in 2004 for infecting the children during the late 1990s but the Supreme court overturned the ruling and ordered a retrial in a lower court.
Since the hospital workers have been in detention, 52 of the 426 children have died of Aids, the disease resulting from the HIV virus.
Prosecutors claim that the five knowingly infected the children, but defendants argue that they are being used as scapegoats for unsanitary conditions in the hospital in the town of Benghazi.
According to the defence team, the HIV virus was present in the hospital prior to the six medics working there.
Luc Montagnier, a French scientist who is one of the discoverers of HIV, told the court in Tripoli that the virus existed in the hospital in 1997 - a year before the six workers arrived.
Announcing the decision, Judge Mahmoud Haouissa said: "In the name of the people and after reviewing the documents and hearing the arguments by lawyers of both sides, the court decided on death sentences.
"They caused the spread of the disease that caused the death of more than one person."
Relatives of the children are said to have celebrated in court following the decision while others cheered outside.
Defence lawyers are hopeful that the case will return to the Supreme court for a second time under the defendants' right of appeal.