Libya Overturns Death Sentences

The Libyan Supreme Court on Sunday overturned death sentences for five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who have been in jail since 1999 on charges that they purposely infected children with the virus that causes AIDS.

The case has hampered Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi’s efforts to improve ties with the West, and many analysts believe he is looking for a face-saving way out of the standoff. The Supreme Court ordered retrials for the six defendants, saying there were “irregularities” in the handling of the case.

The U.S. government and European Union had condemned the convictions and accused Libya of trumping up the charges to divert attention from poor hygiene at its hospitals that critics blame for the infections.

The court’s ruling came three days after U.S., European and Libyan negotiators reached a deal to set up a fund to help families of the 426 children infected with HIV in the 1990s. About 50 of the children are said to have died.

Relatives of the infected children angrily protested Sunday’s ruling at Green Square in the center of the capital, Tripoli. Some set fire to tires and clashed with police. Four demonstrators were arrested.

Libya accused the six health workers of deliberately infecting the children at a Benghazi hospital as part of an experiment. The health workers said they were tortured to extract confessions.

In the ruling Sunday, the Supreme Court’s chief judge, Ali Alous, suggested that he believed the defense. He said prosecutors had agreed with defense lawyers that there were “irregularities” in the arrest and the interrogation of the medical workers.

Bulgaria welcomed the verdict as a “positive sign” and said it hoped for a quick retrial. No retrial date has yet been set.