Libyan court orders death in HIV case

A court convicted five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor Tuesday of deliberately infecting more than 400 children with HIV and sentenced them to death, despite scientific evidence that the youngsters had the virus before the medical workers came to Libya.

The United States and Europe reacted with outrage to the verdict, which prolongs a case that has hurt Libya’s ties with the West. This is the second conviction for the six codefendants, who already have served seven years in jail.

This month, an analysis of hepatitis and human immunodeficiency virus samples taken from some of the children concluded that the viral strains were circulating at the hospital in Benghazi well before the nurses and doctor arrived in March 1998, according to research published by the journal Nature.

The nurses and doctor were charged with intentionally infecting the children during what Libya claims was a botched experiment to find a cure for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which is caused by HIV. Fifty children have died.

Bulgaria and European officials have blamed the infections on unhygienic practices at the hospital and accuse Libya of making the medical workers scapegoats.

There is widespread anger in Libya over the infections, and the sentence brought cheers. The Libyan press has long depicted the six as guilty.

After the sentence was pronounced, dozens of relatives outside the Tripoli court chanted, “Execution! Execution!”

The ruling stunned the defendants. They had been convicted and sentenced to death in May 2004, but a year ago the Libyan Supreme Court ordered a retrial after an international outcry that the first trial was unfair. The case now returns to the Supreme Court for an automatic appeal.

“This sentence was another blow, another shock for us,” Zdravko Georgiev, the husband of one of the nurses, Kristiana Valcheva, said in Bulgaria.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meeting with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin in Washington, said the United States was “very disappointed with the outcome” and urged that the medical workers be freed and “allowed to go home at the earliest possible date.”

The European Union said it was shocked by the verdict. Spokesman Johannes Laitenberger said no steps against Libya had been decided, but he “did not rule anything out.” Bulgaria is to join the EU on Jan. 1.