Libya has sentenced six Bulgarian medics and a Palestinian doctor to death by firing squad for deliberately infecting some 400 children with HIV.
Prosecutors demanded the death penalty, claiming the accused gave patients HIV in a bid to find an Aids cure.

The medics, who worked at a children's hospital in the city of Benghazi, were arrested five years ago.

The Bulgarian government, which had been lobbying for their release, called the sentence "unacceptable".


Torture

The Bulgarian authorities say there will be an appeal.

"The Bulgarian government will continue all its efforts to mobilise the international community, the European Union and the Untied States in order to obtain a fair sentence from another court," spokesman Dimitar Tsonev told Bulgarian TV.

At one point in their trial, which was stopped and started several times, the Libyan leader, Colonel Gaddafi, accused the health workers of acting on orders from the CIA and the Israeli secret service, Mossad.

Libya later rowed back on this allegation.
All along, the five nurses and two doctors denied guilt and said they had been tortured by the police, with daily beatings, sexual assault and electric shocks.

They called expert witnesses, including one of the team which discovered the Aids virus, who said this was an epidemic caused by poor hygiene at the hospital, not by any international conspiracy.

Western diplomats say the prosecutions arose because the authorities simply needed someone to blame for a tragedy which caused outrage in Libya - more than 400 children infected in Benghazi of whom more than 20 are reported to have since died.

With Libya moving to end its international isolation, there had been hopes that the medics would be released.

On the eve of the verdict, the US Secretary of State Colin Powell promised his Bulgarian counterpart, Solomon Passy, that Washington would do all it could to secure their release.

The European Union, Amnesty International and other human rights groups have criticised the proceedings.

(BBC)

Any more word?

If they did the crime, they should pay the price according to the law of the state. The European countries always make a fuss when someone is to be executed, but I think this kind of pressure is an unseemly use of European power to exert its political ideals extra-territorially. Well, at least the US ain't the only one guilty of that!

I would hardly call Bulgaria a European power. And the only country here promising action is the US - we're just criticising, not exerting any influence.

And yes of course, if they did the crime and that's the punishment then I certainly won't lose any sleep. But I think the issue is whether they did, or their confessions were extracted under torture. Which, given the reputation and history of Libya is not really a far-fetched accusation...

If you had bothered to read the article in full, you would have noticed that the problem here isn't just the punishment - it's the lack of a fair trial and more than just a "hunch feeling" that these Bulgarians were simply the wrong people in the wrong place at the wrong time, ended up being scapegoats. Which wouldn't be all that strange, regarding Libya's more than just a little notorious reputation that it attained under Ghadaffi's dictatorship.
I sincerely hope the US (and why not the EU as well?) can help out to see to a fair trial that doesn't have Ghadaffi's stamp of whimsical approval all over it...

[ 05-19-2004, 06:01 PM: Message edited by: Grojlach ]

Grojlach, I readily admit that an unfair trial may have taken place. I just opined as to what I thought should occur "if they did the crime." Anyway, I'll read it.

Oh this is just another terrorist leader playing his cat and mouse game. I expect that a 'humanitarian gesture' will be made in return for some 'under the table' concession.