Libya-Bulgaria broker Aids deal
2005-12-24 16:33
Tripoli - Libya and Bulgaria have brokered a deal to create a fund for Aids-infected children in Libya.
Five Bulgarian nurses, and a Palestinian doctor, are currently facing execution in Libya after being convicted of having given the children in their care HIV-infected blood.
A senior executive of a charity headed by Seif el-Islam Kadhafi, son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, confirmed the deal: "An agreement was reached between Libya and Bulgaria, in partnership with the European Union, the United States and Great Britain, for the creation of an international fund.
"The deal covers three areas - financing treatment of Libya children suffering from Aids, improving and equipping the specialist hospital in Benghazi and help to the families of victims."
Negotiations took place between the Libyan-Bulgarian association for the promotion of friendship and the Benghazi hospital association for Aids children.
The deal announcement comes two days before the five Bulgarians are to appear before Libya's supreme court.
They are appealing a 2004 Libyan court ruling that the five "knowingly" transfused HIV-contaminated blood into more than 400 children at the Benghazi hospital.
The doctor and five nurses have spent almost seven years in a Libyan prison.
Western medical experts are assisting their appeal, saying the six are scapegoats for poor hygiene at the hospital.