Foreigners face death penalty for injecting blood with AIDS

TRIPOLI, Libya -- It began in the summer of 1998, when several infants died and no one immediately knew why.

Three years later, six Bulgarians and a Palestinian -- all doctors and nurses -- face the death penalty if they are convicted of killing 393 children by injecting them with blood contaminated with the AIDS virus. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has said the CIA or the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, is behind the plot.

A panel of five state judges will hand down its verdict Saturday. The defendants have pleaded innocent and some have complained their interrogators extracted confessions using torture, including electric shocks and beating.

The case has raised concern among human rights groups and some in the medical community, who have complained about reports that HIV-contaminated plasma was discovered at a defendant's apartment while she was in police custody and the refusal of the court to allow expert opinion from Switzerland and France.

Amnesty International has said "there have been serious irregularities in ... pretrial proceedings."

Bulgaria has accused Libya of holding a political trial against its nationals and has called for an independent team of international experts to study the case and testify.

Luc Perrin, head of virology at Geneva University Hospital, said the contamination was caused by "bad medical practices."

Perrin, who examined 40 of the children, said at least half of them were also infected with hepatitis C, which suggests the hospital had reused needles. The court has refused to allow Perrin to testify.

In light of a lack of witnesses and proper court procedures, diplomats suggested Libya could have ulterior motives in bringing the case to court. It could be trying to divert attention from horrendous medical conditions at some of its state-run hospitals, where disposable instruments are repeatedly reused and basic rules of hygiene are not observed, they said. Libya could also be trying to make Bulgaria forgive it its debts, estimated at $300 million.

The case of the infected children was first brought to light in 1998 by the Libyan magazine La, which is in the coastal city of Benghazi, where the Al-Fateh children's hospital is located.