Medics await Libya court verdict

Defence lawyers say the children already had the virus

A court in Libya is to deliver its verdict in the retrial of six foreign medics accused of knowingly infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor - who deny charges.

They have been in detention since 1999, during which time 52 of the 426 infected children have died of Aids.

The nurses and doctor have already been sentenced to death, but the Supreme Court quashed the ruling last year.

The first trial, which resulted in a guilty verdict in 2004, lasted almost six years. But the Supreme Court overturned the ruling and ordered the case to be returned to a lower court.

Prosecutors say the medics deliberately injected the children with contaminated blood as part of an experiment to find an Aids cure.

Defence lawyers say the children had the virus before the nurses arrived to start work in the city of Benghazi, and that the medics are scapegoats for unhygienic practices at the hospital.

Peaceful protests

Relatives of the infected children are expected to stage a protest outside the court in Tripoli, demanding the three-judge panel issues a guilty verdict and re-imposes a death sentence.

The families have also been collecting signatures for a petition urging Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's government to "reject pressure from the West" and "respect Libyan justice".

In Bulgaria, hundreds staged peaceful protests in support of the five nurses on Monday.

The case has become a source of international tension, with both the United States and the European Union supporting Bulgaria's efforts to have the nurses freed.

International experts, including Luc Montaignier, the French doctor who first isolated the HIV virus, say the epidemic was sparked by lack of hygiene at the hospital.

Tripoli has demanded 10m euros (£6.7m) for each infected child's family. Under Islamic law victims' relatives can withdraw death sentences in return for reparations.

Bulgaria and its supporters have rejected the idea, saying any pay-out would be an admission of guilt.