Libya convicts foreigners for infecting children

Friday, May 7, 2004

BENGHAZI, Libya -- Libya sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death by firing squad after convicting them Thursday of intentionally infecting more than 400 children with the AIDS virus in an experiment to find a cure. Relatives of the children shouted for joy as the sentences were handed down, but Bulgaria's justice minister called the verdicts "absurd." Some human rights groups say Libya concocted the experiment story to cover up unsafe hospital practices. Under Libyan law, death sentences produce an automatic appeal, and European leaders suggested they were exerting pressure on the government of Moammar Gadhafi to reverse the verdicts.

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