Two-year HIV trial collapses

2002-02-17 19:02

Tripoli - A two-year trial of six Bulgarians accused of deliberately killing Libyan children by infecting them with HIV has folded because of lack of evidence that they had threatened state security.

Five Bulgarian nurses and a doctor are accused, along with a Palestinian doctor who worked with them at a pediatric hospital in the northern city of Benghazi, of deliberately injecting 393 children in their care with blood products infected with HIV.

Twenty-three children are reported to have died already.

The accused, charged with "premeditated murder to undermine the security of Libya", all pleaded not guilty. They had been imprisoned in Tripoli for three years before being bailed to house arrest on February 5.

The Tripoli court trying the case referred it back to prosecutors for reconsideration and eventual judgment before an ordinary court.

"After deliberating, the people's court, the jurisdiction which tries cases of endangering state security, has declared itself unqualified", the presiding judge ruled at the end of a half-hour public session.

"The court has decided to refer the case back to the prosecution, because this matter is not included in its prerogatives and it must be tried before a criminal court," said the judge.

Eight Libyans are accused of negligence in the trial, which started on February 7 2000. The verdict had already been put off twice, in September and December last year.

Wanted everything to end

The Bulgarians were "confused" by Sunday's decision by the Tripoli court and did not know what was going to happen to them, Bulgarian radio reported in the capital, Sophia.

They were quoted as saying they wanted "everything to end and that they understand that we are innocent", the radio said.

Reaction to the decision was swift from Bulgaria, where there was hope the most serious charges relating to state security were being dropped altogether and that the spectre of the death penalty had been lifted.

"The trial will be conducted by an ordinary court which implies a lifting of the most-serious accusations. I am becoming more and more optimistic on the issue of the trial," said Bulgarian justice minister Anton Stankov.

"It is an encouraging decision, raising the possibility of lifting the harsher accusations" against the defendants, said Bulgarian foreign minister Solomon Passi.

Passi emphasised the "enormous role" the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Seif al-Islam, who is head of the Gaddafi charity foundation, had played in this decision and in securing the Bulgarians' release from jail.

Last Thursday, Seif al-Islam said: "The case will be reviewed in light of remarks we made to the prosecution."

Unclear what charges they would face

Bulgarian President Gueorgui Parvanov, meanwhile, said the "trial against the Bulgarians is complex and its postponement expresses the Libyan goodwill to establish the truth".

European diplomats, relatives of the accused and journalists were among those attending Sunday's hearing.

Afterwards, defence lawyer Othman al-Bizanti told journalists the new trial would kick off in one or two months in Benghazi. It was unclear which of the remaining charges they would face in a new trial.

He said the Bulgarians would stay under house arrest, where they were moved after the intervention of the Gaddafi foundation, pending the opening of a new case against them.

Bulgaria's government, led by former king Simeon Saxe-Coburg, is looking at relaunching its relations with Libya, which was the country's main trading partner among developing nations during its communist era. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA