Nurses still getting HIV blame
2006-08-09 00:10
Tripoli/Sofia - The retrial of five Bulgarian nurses accused of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV/Aids and earlier sentenced to death resumed Tuesday with local experts reiterating their claim that the infection was deliberate.
The nurses now face additional charges - including currency violations, illegal handling of alcoholic beverages and promiscuity, Bulgarian radio reported.
The nurses, along with a Palestinian doctor, were charged of causing a HIV/Aids epidemic by infecting 426 children in Benghazi.
Unlike local experts, foreigners claimed that the children had been infected prior to the nurses' arrival.
More than 50 of the infected children have already died.
The nurses and the Palestinian doctor were condemned to death two years ago in a trial which the United States and European Union said was severely flawed.
The case is an obstacle to Libya's full return from international isolation.
Libya's supreme court overturned the guilty verdict in December, but the medical workers remained in prison after the authorities refused to release them on bail.
They have been in prison since 1999.
Tuesday's session was again marred by violence outside the courtroom, as protestors demanding the death penalty for the nurses clashed with police. - Sapa-dpa
- SAPA