Medics await their fate in Libyan HIV case

(Update below)

The guilt of these people is almost too horrible to comprehend. Why in the world would people do such a thing?

If they are innocent, and I hope they are, I certainly hope they will be so judged and released.

A Palestinian doctor and five Bulgarian nurses will learn tomorrow whether they must die by firing squad for deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV.

Fifty-two of the children have since died of Aids. The surviving 374 are being treated at hospitals in France and Italy, at the expense of the Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Ramadan Faitori, a spokesman for the childrens' families, said, "We are confident that the accused group is criminal and will be convicted."

The foreign medical staff were first convicted of the crime and sentenced to die in 2004, but Libya's Supreme Court ordered a retrial. Official media in Libya are declaring that the guilt of the accused is a foregone conclusion. They have been held in jail in Libya since March 1999.

The case has become a focus of tension between Libya and the West, where experts are united in believing that the six have been made scapegoats for a crime they did not commit. Reports by top Aids experts, including one by Professor Luc Montagnier, one of the discoverers of Aids, have exonerated them. Professor Montagnier said the epidemic was probably caused by poor hygiene in the hospital, and pointed out that it had begun before the six started working there, and continued after their arrest.

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Update:

A court convicted five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor Tuesday of deliberately infecting 400 children with HIV and sentenced them to death, despite scientific evidence 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 to the West. The six co-defendants have already served seven years in jail.

The sentence brought cheers in Libya, where there is widespread public anger over the infections. The Libyan press has long depicted the medical workers as guilty.

After the sentence was pronounced, dozens of relatives outside the Tripoli court chanted "Execution! Execution!" Ibrahim Mohammed al-Aurabi, the father of an infected child, shouted, "God is great! Long live the Libyan judiciary!"

But the ruling stunned the defendants. They were convicted and sentenced to death a year ago, but 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.

So it isn't over quite yet although the conclusion seems pre-ordained.

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