Libya court confirms death penalty for foreign medics
11/07/2007| IslamWeb
Libya's Supreme Court on Wednesday confirmed the death penalty against six foreign medics convicted of infecting hundreds of children with the AIDS virus in a case that has dragged on for eight years.
The five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor were not in court for the verdict, announced the day after a compensation deal was sealed with the children's families that could see the death sentences commuted to prison terms.
"In the name of the people, the court has decided not to accept the defendants' appeal and confirms the death penalty against them," chief judge Fathi Dahan said.
It is not clear how the decision will affect the deal reportedly aimed at allowing the defendants -- who have always protested their innocence -- to be pardoned and serve out prison sentences in Bulgaria.
Nurses Snezhana Dimitrova, Nasya Nenova, Valya Cherveniashka, Valentina Siropulo and Kristiana Valcheva and Palestinian doctor Ashraf Juma Hajuj have been behind bars since February 1999.
They were first condemned to death in May 2004.
Salah Abdessalem, director of the Kadhafi Foundation run by the son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi which is mediating in the crisis, had said on Tuesday that a compromise acceptable to the families had been reached.
"This accord satisfied all the parties and puts an end to this crisis," he said, adding that the deal was between the families and a special aid fund for victims set up by Tripoli and Sofia in 2005 under the European Union.
The Supreme Court had deferred its judgment at an initial hearing on June 20, when the prosecution sought confirmation of the death sentences against the six, who maintain their innocence and say they confessed under duress.
They were convicted of infecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood at a hospital in the Mediterranean city of Benghazi. Fifty-six of the children have since died.
Foreign health experts have cited poor hygiene as the probable cause of the epidemic in Benghazi, Libya's second city.
The families of the five nurses had demanded that the women be acquitted, saying that a new death sentence followed by an expected pardon later would not be justice for them.
A representative of the victims' families has said that a compromise deal would see the death penalty commuted to jail terms, which could be served in the medics' country of origin, as Libya and Bulgaria have an extradition treaty.
The doctor was recently granted a Bulgarian passport, meaning he could benefit from such an arrangement as well.
US President George W. Bush had urged Kadhafi in a letter delivered on Monday to help in the dispute over the fate of the medics, the White House said on Tuesday.
Bush told the Libyan leader that the case and lingering issues tied to the 1989 Lockerbie bombing needed his attention.
The six medics still face defamation charges brought by a senior police officer after having been acquitted in May on similar charges brought by three others.
The cases arise from claims that the medics "confessions" in the AIDS trial were forced from them under torture, including beatings, electric shocks and being threatened with dogs.
If found guilty in the new trial, brought by Salim Jomaa Salim, head of the police dog unit, they face sentences of up to three years in jail.
PHOTO CAPTION
Libyan Judge Fathi Dahan, center, and his assistants leave Libya's Supreme Court on Wednesday July 11, 2007, in Tripoli, Libya. (AP)
Reuters