Medics in Libyan HIV sham now accused of slander

In the latest development in the cases of the foreign medics sentenced to death in Libya for supposedly deliberately infecting children at a hospital with HIV, the six are now being subjected to a slander trial.

The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor have been accused of making false claims of torture against a Libyan police officer and a doctor who are claiming $4m (£2m) each in compensation in damages.

The pair were acquitted of torture charges in 2005.

The six medics were sentenced to death in a separate trial last year for infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV and they have pleaded not guilty to the charges of slander.

The medics say they made false confessions, admitting to infecting the children, because investigators tortured them.

The confessions are the main evidence of guilt that prosecution used in the HIV trial.

The defamation trial is being held in Tripoli's Penal Court where the prosecution is demanding additional sentence of three years in prison should a guilty verdict be returned.

Exchanges in the courtroom became understandably heated with Palestinian doctor Ashraf Ahmad Juma saying the two should be ashamed for first torturing the medics and now prosecuting them.

Police officer Jomaa Mishri has said the lawsuit was not about money but rather about regaining their dignity.

The plaintiffs and eight other policemen were acquitted of torture in a criminal trial in 2005 when the ten men investigated the role of the foreign medical workers in the HIV infections amongst hundreds of children in Benghazi.

The six medics have now been in detention since 1999, during which time 52 of the 426 infected children have died of Aids and have repeatedly protested their innocence. throughout.

They have the support of international health experts who are adamant that the Benghazi HIV epidemic was caused by poor hygiene long before the foreign medics arrived.

The five Bulgarians and the Palestinian have appealed against their death sentences and are awaiting a Supreme Court hearing, which is expected in May.

Meanwhile Bulgaria is preparing a counter-trial because of the torture the nurses were subjected to.