The HIV trial in Libya (Arabic: قضية الأيدز في ليبيا; literally: AIDS in Libya trial) concerns the trial, conviction, and the death sentences imposed by a Libyan court against the Benghazi Six: five Bulgarian nurses (Kristiyana Valtcheva, Nasya Nenova, Valentina Siropulo, Valya Chervenyashka, and Snezhana Dimitrova) and one Palestinian physician (Ashraf al-Hajuj (also transliterated al-Hadjudj)). Based on confessions of al-Hajuj, Valtcheva and Siropulo (allegedly extracted by torture),[1] the court convicted the six of causing an HIV epidemic among hundreds of children in a Benghazi hospital and sentenced them all to death by firing squad. However, as a result of an appeal by the Benghazi Six, their death sentences were overturned on December 25, 2005, by Libya's Supreme Court and a re-trial ordered.
The new trial began in Tripoli on May 11, 2006, and proceeded very slowly. At the June 20 hearing, the court's president denied permission for foreign experts to testify.[2] On 28 August, when the prosecution was scheduled to close its case, the Libyan prosecutor called for the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to be sentenced to death. Attorneys from Lawyers Without Borders[3], who handled the defence of the six, responded by calling for the international community to request that the court order an independent scientific assessment, by international AIDS experts, of how the children became infected.[4] Such an assessment was done, an evaluation of genetic material, and it was found that many of the children were infected years before the Benghazi Six arrived in Libya[5][6][7] (see below) — this was reported after the trial had ended but before verdict was announced.
On December 19, 2006, the court announced sentences of death for all of the Benghazi Six.[8] However, this latest trial "will not be the final step in the Libyan legal process... it could be appealed again to the supreme court and could then go to the Libyan higher judicial council, which might grant clemency."[9]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV_trial_in_Libya
2006-12-19
15:27:43
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