Libya’s supreme court today upheld the death sentence against six foreign medics who have been convicted of infecting children with HIV, according to a Reuter’s report from Washington. However, this is not the last step in the judicial process and there is hope that the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor will be reprieved on Monday when Libya’s government-controlled High Judicial Council reviews the case.
The six medics have been in prison since 1999 and were convicted in 2004 of infecting 438 children with HIV by giving them infected blood at a hospital in Benghazi, Libya. 56 of the children have since died.
Libya’s High Judicial Council has the power to commute the sentences, or pardon them. Commuting the sentences could still mean the six are released since the time they have already spent in prison is taken into account.
When the six medics were originally tried and sentenced to death in 2004 they denied the charge that they deliberately gave the children infected blood in 1998, and foreign scientists have since said that the infection was caused by poor hygiene.
After the international outcry that followed the original death sentence verdict in 2004, Libya’s supreme court ordered a retrial in 2005, which also resulted in a second death sentence verdict in December last year. The ruling today was a result of the medics’ appeal in February this year.
The European Commission (EC) said today’s decision was regrettable and Benita Ferrero-Waldner, External Relations Commissioner for the European Union said she hoped the medics will be shown clemency, and that this would reflect the respect and compassion shown by the EU toward the plight of the Benghazi children and their families.
The United States has also given its reaction today, following a plea from President Bush for the release of the medics on a visit to Bulgaria in June.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told the press today that the US was holding out hope that the medics would be released:
“The next step here is for these people to be returned home.”
“Our position is that they should be returned immediately, but I would point out that there is another step in the judicial review,” he added, referring to the decision that is being awaited on Monday.
There has been a large international effort to put pressure on Libya, and various media reports also describe a fund called the Benghazi International fund, details of which remain vague, but,according to Guardian Online is thought to be worth about 50 million US dollars and is still growing.
The fund is thought to have been set up by the European Commission at the suggestion of the UK government and according to the Guardian, part of it consists of wiping out a state debt that Libya owes to Bulgaria. The rest of the fund would be used to fund medical projects.
The BBC said that a spokesman for the victims’ parents, who is also a parent of one of the infected children, said that a final deal had been reached “with all the interested parties involved” which is thought to include the European Union and the Libyan government.
The legal system in Libya is governed by Islamic law which respects the right of the victims’ families to pursue the death penalty.
According to the BBC representative in Libya, if the families of the victims accept a financial settlement, they drop the right to pursue the death penalty. This would satisfy Islamic law.
A Bulgarian expert on Middle East affairs told the Guardian that ironically the court’s decision could be a good one for the six medics because it satisfied the victims’ families and public opinion in Libya and meant the end of the judicial process so the case could then progress to a political level.
On the political level, as well as the setting up of the Benghazi International fund deal, which the BBC says is being brokered by the Libyan based Gaddafi Foundation, the last few months have seen a step up in diplomatic activity with recent visits to Libya by Ms Ferrero-Waldner and the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and an earlier one by erstwhile Prime Minister Tony Blair in May.
The Bulgarian nurses Snezhana Dimitrova, Nasya Nenova, Valya Cherveniashka, Valentina Siropulo and Kristiana Valcheva, and the Palestinian doctor, Ashraf Juma Hajuj were not in court when the verdict was upheld today.
Click here for Guardian Online report.
Click here for BBC news story.
Written by: Catharine Paddock
Writer: Medical News Today