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Talks continue on Aids medics
17/06/2007 20:26 - (SA)
Tripoli - Efforts to free six foreign medics sentenced to death for infecting Libyan children with the HI-virus have yet to result in a deal on compensation.
Libya's Supreme Court is due to hear an appeal by the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor this week.
Spokesperson for the Association for the Families of the HIV-infected Children, Ramadan Fitouri, said he expected the appeal to be dismissed, opening the way for a compensation deal.
"This will be the ideal time to negotiate the issue of
compensation.
"If an agreement is reached about this, the council could
cancel the death penalty."
Libyan officials have said that even if the appeal court
confirms the conviction and sentence, the case will go to
Libya's High Judicial Council, a government-led body that has
the power to amend or overturn decisions by the judiciary.
The medics were convicted in December of deliberately
infecting 426 children with HIV in a highly politicised trial
that has hampered attempts by Opec-member Libya to restore full
relations with the West.
All six say they are innocent and were tortured into confessing. Tripoli is under pressure from the United States
and the European Union to release them.
- Reuters
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