Foreigners charged with killing Libyan children
2001-09-21 17:19
Tripoli - It began in the summer of 1998, when several infants died and no one immediately knew why.
Three years later, six Bulgarians and a Palestinian, all
doctors and nurses, face the death penalty if they are convicted
of killing 393 children by injecting them with blood contaminated
with the Aids virus.
The defendants are charged with murder and conspiracy in the deaths. A panel of five state judges will hand down its verdict on Saturday. The defendants have pleaded innocent.
Some have complained their interrogators extracted confessions using torture, including electric shocks and beating.
The case has raised concern among human rights groups and the medical community. They have complained about reports that
HIV-contaminated plasma was discovered at a defendant's apartment while she was in police custody.
They also protested the refusal by the court to allow expert opinion from Switzerland and France.
Amnesty International has said "there have been serious
irregularities in ... pre-trial proceedings".
Bad medical practices
Bulgaria has accused Libya of holding a political trial against
its nationals and has repeatedly called for an independent team of international experts to study the case and testify.
Luc Perrin, head of virology at Geneva University Hospital, said
the contamination was caused by "bad medical practices".
Perrin, who examined 40 of the children, said at least half of
them were also infected with hepatitis C. This suggests the
hospital had re-used needles. The court has refused to allow Perrin to testify.
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, predictably has said that the CIA or the Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, were behind the childrens' illnesses. He has blamed other crises on the United States and Israel, both which accuse Libya of supporting terrorism.
In light of lack of witnesses and proper court procedures,
diplomats suggested Libya could have ulterior motives in bringing
the case to court. It could be trying to divert attention from
horrendous medical conditions at some of its state-run hospitals.
Disposable instruments are repeatedly reused and basic rules of hygiene are not observed, they said. Libya could also be trying to make Bulgaria forgive its debts, estimated at $300 million.
The case of the infected children was first brought to light in
1998 by the Libyan magazine La, which is based in the coastal city of
Benghazi, where the Al-Fateh children's hospital is located.
Dying twin
The magazine included the story of twin girls who were born in
Benghazi on August 2, 1998. A month later, one of the babies fell
seriously ill and her father took her to Al-Fateh hospital, where
she received a blood test and a check-up.
Three months later, a social worker visited the girls' home and insisted on conducting new tests, saying the baby might have been infected with viral hepatitis.
The baby's twin and mother were also tested. The results showed that the baby who had been hospitalised was infected with HIV, the virus that causes Aids.
Several parents told the magazine the hospital did not tell them
their children were infected. The government closed down La a few
weeks after these reports were published.
Government investigation
In November 1998, a group of desperate fathers interrupted a
medical conference Gaddafi was attending in Benghazi and appealed to him for help.
A few weeks later, the government detained scores of hospital
staff before narrowing its list to the Bulgarians and the Palestinian. They have been held since February 1999.
At an Aids conference in Nigeria in April, Gaddafi called the
infections in his country " an odious crime".
" Who charged (the medics) with this task? Some said it was the CIA. Others said it was Mossad," Gaddafi said.
Besides the murder and conspiracy counts, the Bulgarians are
charged with drinking in public and engaging in extramarital sex. Alcohol is banned in Libya. Nine Libyans charged in the same case are out on bail.
Othman el-Bezanti, the lawyer defending the Bulgarians, said
that if they are found guilty, they have two stages of appeal. û Sapa-AP
- SAPA