Libya revokes death sentences on six medics

LIBYA:Libya last night commuted the death sentences given to six foreign medics to life imprisonment, after the families of 460 children whom they allegedly infected with HIV-tainted blood each accepted $1 million (€725,000) in compensation from an international fund.

"The High Judicial Council decided to commute the death sentences against the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor to life-imprisonment terms," the council said in a statement.

Bulgarian officials immediately said they would ask Tripoli to transfer the medics to Bulgaria as soon as possible.

Libyan leader Col Muammar Gadafy could also issue a personal pardon for the medics, as he tries to resume a stalled rapprochement with the West.

"Thank God the death sentences were dropped. This is at least some relief that they are not going to be executed," said Zdravko Georgiev, the husband of jailed nurse Kristiana Valcheva.

"But I can not make any forecast how long the upcoming procedures will last."

Ms Valcheva's mother added: "I feel good. But I will feel even better when I see them come at the airport. The burden will not fall from my heart until I see them home."

After spending eight-and-a-half years in prison and being allegedly tortured by their jailers, the medics' death sentence was confirmed last week by Libya's Supreme Court, despite testimony from international HIV experts that they are almost certainly innocent.

Specialist say the outbreak in a hospital in the city of Benghazi probably began before the medics even arrived there, and was caused by poor hygiene practices.

"This will only be over when the nurses leave Libyan airspace and arrive on European soil. Until then there is no solution," said Emmanuel Altit, the leader of the nurses' international defence team.

"But we think this decision opens the door to a possible negotiated political settlement.

"The physical and mental health of these medics is extremely preoccupying. After eight years of drama they are at their wits' end."

Relatives of the infected children demanded the execution of the medics unless they were paid "blood money", and Col Gadafy has linked the case to the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing, for which a Libyan agent was jailed and for which he paid $10 million compensation for each of the 270 passengers killed.

Earlier yesterday, each of the 460 families received a cash transfer of $1 million, and signed a written withdrawal of their demand that the medics be put to death.

"All the families received the compensation money. They are now signing documents saying they got the compensation and accept the High Judicial Council to take the decision it sees appropriate on the six medics," said Idriss Lagha, a spokesman for Libya's Association for the Families of HIV-Infected Children.

"The money came from the Benghazi International Fund, which is financed by the European Union, United States, Bulgaria and Libya," he said.

Bulgaria had agreed to help pay for medical care for the infected children - more than 50 of whom have already died - but rejected the suggestion of compensation because it could appear as a tacit admission of the nurses' guilt.

The medics' case has hampered Col Gadafy's drive to improve ties with Washington and Brussels since he abandoned his illicit weapons programme in 2003.

Libya has Africa's biggest oil reserves and hopes foreign firms will spend €5 billion on exploration over the next decade and help double the country's current daily production to three million barrels per day by 2010.

"We are encouraged at the commutation of the death sentences and we hope they will result in a way to let the medics return home," said US state department official David Welch.

Col Gadafy has been under domestic pressure to recoup compensation paid for the Lockerbie bombing and to press for the release of the Libyan agent jailed in Scotland for the attack.

He was given leave last month to launch a second appeal against his conviction.

The Libyan leader was also aware that to simply free the medics would leave his health and judicial systems open to ridicule, and would have enraged the already hostile city of Benghazi, where the medics were initially accused of infecting the children as part of a CIA or Israeli plot to undermine Libya and the Muslim world.

Othman Bizanti, a lawyer for the nurses, said he could not challenge the decision of the High Judicial Council, but believed the medics could soon be going home.