Libya convicts foreigners for infecting children

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.

Gadhafi has been trying to present a new image to the world after decades of supporting terrorism.

Nine Libyan hospital officials were acquitted of negligence by the five-judge panel.

A sixth Bulgarian, a doctor, received four years in prison for changing foreign currency on the black market. He stood trial for infecting patients with AIDS, but his verdict did not mention that charge, and no explanation was given for the change. All six Bulgarians and the Palestinian had pleaded innocent.

As soon as the sentences were announced, five relatives of the infected children shouted: "Allahu Akbar!" -- "God is great!" The defendants, wearing civilian clothes in the dock, did not react.

"I thank God for this sentence," said Abdel Razek al-Odaibi, father of an infected child. "If there is a greater sentence than death, I would have wished it for them."

Al-Odaibi brought his infected son, 6-year-old Akram, to court. Other relatives stood outside, the courtroom too packed to hold them.

Initially, Libya claimed the infections were part of a conspiracy by the CIA and Israeli intelligence, but it later backed away from those allegations.

Prosecutors said the health workers of intentionally infecting more than 400 children with HIV-contaminated blood as part of an experiment to find a cure for AIDS. Twenty-three of the infected children have reportedly died.

Some human rights groups have accused Libya of concocting the experiment story to cover up unsafe practices in its hospitals and clinics. They, and European governments, have said confessions were extracted by torture.

"The verdict is based solely on confessions made by some of the defendants under duress," said Bulgarian government spokesman Dimitar Tsonev.

"This verdict is absurd," said Bulgaria's justice minister, Anton Stankov. "It lacks evidence and justice."

The defendants have said they were jolted with electricity, beaten with sticks and repeatedly jumped on while strapped to their beds. Two of the women said they were raped.

"It is only by means of a fair trial that follows due legal process that the truth will emerge about how these children became infected with the HIV virus and those responsible be held fully to account," Amnesty International said in a statement.

Dr. Luc Montagnier, the French co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, said poor hygiene at the Benghazi hospital likely led to the contamination. He estimated it happened in 1997 -- more than a year before the Bulgarians were hired to work there.

But a commission of court-appointed Libyan doctors rejected the Western expert's testimony and said the Bulgarians willfully infected the children with the virus through blood transfusions.

"This is a very negative surprise for us," said European Union spokesman Diego de Ojeda. "The European Union has assessed severe irregularities during the trial in terms of the rights of defense."

The Bulgarian ambassador to Libya, Zdravko Velev, said the Libyans would shortly free the doctor convicted of illegal currency trading, Zdravko Georgiev, as he has already spent more than four years in prison.

Palestinian doctor Ashraf Gomaa and the other Bulgarians, all women, -- Kristiyana Valcheva, Nassya Nenova, Valentina Siropulo, Valya Chervenyashka and Snezhana Dimitrova -- were awaiting their appeals.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, receiving Bulgaria's prime minister in Berlin, suggested pressure was being brought to bear on Libya's government to rule favorably on the appeals.

He declined to give details, telling a news conference to do so could "lead to the opposite of what we want -- to achieve an appeal of a decision that we cannot understand."

Libyan police arrested the health care workers in February 1999. They were acquitted of conspiracy by a high tribunal in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, before being sent to Benghazi for criminal trials.

Gadhafi has tried to recast his country as a member of the world community, renouncing terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. Libya also agreed to pay damages to relatives of the 270 people killed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the 1989 bombing of a French jetliner that killed 170 people.