Medic to sue Gaddafi for holding him hostage

Aug 6 2007

One of the six medics imprisoned by Libyan authorities for allegedly deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV, plans to sue Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi.

The medics spent eight years behind bars in Tripoli and now Palestinian-born Ashraf Al-Hadjudj, one of six medical workers arrested in 1999, is reportedly intending to sue the Libyan leader for holding him hostage.

According to reports from the Netherlands where his family has been living since 2004, the doctor has every intention of initiating legal proceedings against the Libyan leader.

The five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor, who was granted Bulgarian citizenship last month, were convicted in Tripoli of intentionally infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV.

In a case where even the advice and opinions of world experts were discarded, the six were convicted of the offence but the ensuing outrage saw them transferred to Bulgaria on July 24th to serve their life sentence there.

Libya only agreed to commute the initial death sentences handed down against the five following a financial settlement of $1 million U.S. for each of more than 400 children infected with the virus that causes AIDS.

The medics have repeatedly protested their innocence throughout their eight-year ordeal and have had the backing of experts and top AIDS researchers.

They all maintain conditions in Libya's hospitals meant the virus was rampant there before the medics arrived and the case was in fact a cover-up for widespread poor hygiene and treatment.

Shortly after they landed on Bulgarian soil, the medics were pardoned by President Georgi Parvanov and details are now emerging with regard to the torture they were subjected to and how they were told the torture would continue until they confessed.

Before they were released and left Libya the six were obliged to declare in writing that they would not take any legal steps against the Libyan government for torture, maltreatment and abusive detention.

There are reports the five female nurses were raped and suffered personal indignities and the doctor was subjected to excruciating forms of physical torture including the use of an electric torture machine.