Six medics back in court in Tripoli amid hopes for compensation deal

The Palestinian doctor sentenced to death along with five Bulgarian nurses for allegedly infecting 426 Libyan children with the HIV virus has been Bulgarian citizenship.

The six medics are currently back before Libya's Supreme Court appealing against the death sentence.

Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin says the action could help the doctor get out of Libya should the death sentence eventually be commuted under a deal to compensate the families.

Kalfin says Ashraf Alhajouj applied for citizenship two years ago and procedures were finally completed last week.

The medics maintain they are innocent and say confessions were extracted by means of torture; they have been in prison since 1999.

Some Western scientists have said all along that negligence and poor hospital hygiene are the real culprits, and that the six are scapegoats.

Bulgaria along with the European Union and United States have all called for their release.

The development means Alhajouj can be brought back to Bulgaria with the nurses under a long standing legal agreement with Libya which allows for prisoner exchanges.

The expectations are that the Supreme Court will confirm the death sentences and the fate of the medics would then be in the hands of Libya's High Judicial Council, which has the power to commute them.

Political analysts and observers believe the council are likely to let the nurses return to Bulgaria if a compensation deal can be reached with the families.

Talks between the European Union and the association of families resumed again last month amid a general feeling that a deal will be reached soon.

The association is demanding around 10 million euros (almost $14 million) for each family but Bulgaria has refused to pay, saying it would be an admission of guilt.

A deal for the medics' release was looking more of a possibility last week after a visit to Libya by European Union External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Bulgaria has set up a solidarity fund along with the European Union and the United States to provide medical aid for treatment at European hospitals for the children and financial support for their relatives.