|
Date set for Aids medic verdict
20/06/2007 14:46 - (SA)
Tripoli - A verdict in the appeal of six Bulgarian medics on death row for infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the Aids virus will be handed down on July 11, the judge said on Wednesday.
Court president Fathi Dahane made the announcement after the prosecution and defence presented their final arguments in the appeal against the May 2004 death sentences.
The medics were first arrested in February 1999 and were sentenced to death in May 2004 after being convicted of infecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood at a hospital in the Mediterranean city of Benghazi.
Fifty-six children have since died.
The accused have denied the charges and foreign health experts have said the Aids pandemic in Benghazi, Libya's second city, was probably the result of poor hygiene.
The case has sparked mounting criticism from the European Union and the United States and hindered Libya's efforts at rapprochement with the West after Kadhafi's regime renounced efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction in December 2003.
US President George W Bush appealed for the release of the medics last week during a visit to Bulgaria.
"They should be released and they should be allowed to return to their families. We will continue to make clear to Libya that the release of these nurses is a higher priority for Bulgaria," Bush said.
- AFP
|
News
