'Aids' nurses: $4.6bn demanded
2006-09-12 18:43
Tripoli - Hundreds of HIV-positive Libyan children should each receive $11.6m (about R86.1m) in compensation, lawyers told a court on Tuesday retrying six foreign medics accused of deliberately infecting the children.
It was the first time since the retrial of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor began in May that lawyers have demanded a payout for the infections, which took place at a hospital in Libya's Benghazi city in the late 1990s.
"I demand compensation of 15m Libyan Dinars (each) for moral and material damages caused to those who are affected," lawyer Hussein Elghlilab told the Tripoli court.
With more than 400 children involved, the total compensation demanded would add up to $4.6bn (about R34.1bn).
Elghlilab was one of several lawyers representing the children to address the court on Tuesday. Each of the lawyers represents several dozen of the children.
Intentionally infected 426 children with HIV
Most set their demands at 15m Dinars a child, while one demanded three million dinars a child.
The decision as to who would pay any compensation award rests with the court.
A previous trial of the six, who have been detained since 1999, ended with their conviction on charges they intentionally infected 426 children with HIV in the Benghazi hospital.
In December 2005, the supreme court overturned that ruling, which had resulted in death sentences by firing squad, and returned the case to a lower court.
The case has been a hurdle to full normalisation of relations between Libya and the West amid warming diplomatic and trade ties after decades of hostility and ostracism.
Washington has long backed Bulgaria and the European Union in saying the medics, in jail in Libya since 1999, are innocent.
Tripoli has informally suggested the nurses could go free if Bulgaria pays compensation to the children and their families, who demanded a total of $5.5bn (about R40bn) in meetings with diplomats and charity officials in January.
Face-saving opportunity
Bulgaria refused to pay, but has joined the United States, the EU and Libya in agreeing to back the creation of an aid fund.
Around 50 of the HIV-infected children have died, fuelling popular anger in Libya, but analysts say the offer of aid may give Tripoli a face-saving opportunity to free the nurses.
Prosecutors have demanded the death penalty for the six.
The medics, Palestinian doctor Ashraf Alhajouj and Bulgarians Snezhana Dimitrova, Nasya Nenova, Valentina Siropolu, Christiana Valcheva and Valia Cherveniashka denied the charges in both their first and second trials and have repeatedly testified that they were tortured to make them confess.
Bulgaria and its allies support the medics' torture claims and global Aids experts say the outbreak at the Benghazi hospital where they worked began before they arrived.
The retrial was adjourned to September 21.