Court asked to ignore evidence
2006-09-05 22:20
Tripoli - A defence lawyer for the Bulgarian nurses charged with intentionally infecting Libyan children with HIV asked the court on Tuesday to reject as evidence blood samples seized from the apartment of one of his clients.
Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor are charged with infecting more than 400 children with HIV - the virus that causes Aids - at a hospital in the Libyan city of Benghazi.
At least 50 of the children have died.
Defence lawyer Osman al-Bizanti said blood samples "that were said to have been taken" from the apartment of one of the nurses should not be used because authorities raided her residence without a permit.
Prosecutors rejected the demand saying "results of the (analysis of) the blood show that the she was involved" in the case, implying that the samples tested positive for HIV.
The raid on the apartment in Benghazi was in February 1999.
The presiding judge said he would rule on the request at the next session, scheduled September 12.
The Palestinian doctor's lawyer did not attend Tuesday's session, his second consecutive absence, prompting the judge to tell him that the court will replace the lawyer unless he attends the next session.
Prosecutors demand death sentences
One of the Bulgarians was absent on Tuesday because she was sick, al-Bizanti said.
The absent nurse was not the one from whose apartment the blood samples were seized.
Last week, prosecutors demanded death sentences.
The six defendants, held in Libya since 1999, were convicted on the same charge and sentenced to death in 2004, but Libya's supreme court ordered a retrial in December after international protests that the trial was unfair. They denied the charges.
Europe, the United States and human rights groups accused Libya of concocting the charges to cover up poor hygiene conditions at its hospitals they say caused the infections.
The six medical workers said they were tortured to extract confessions.
- SAPA