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sandmountainslim · Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 12:11 am Post subject: Libya Wrongly Condemned!

Brother Colonel's Court is doing the right thing and being condemned for it!
Brother Colonel doesn't give a damn what the EU and US thinks about the sentence.
WP

Libyan HIV case verdict condemned

A Libyan court decision on Tuesday sentencing to death five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor on charges of deliberately infecting hundreds of children with the HIV virus was greeted with widespread international condemnation.

The European Commission described the sentence as "unacceptable", the United States said it was "disappointed" while the Bulgarian authorities "categorically rejected" the ruling and called for international pressure on Libya.

The court decision was hailed as a victory for justice, however, by some of the families of the 427 children infected with HIV virus in the Al Fateh hospital in the eastern city of Benghazi where the foreign medics worked.

The ruling, which can be appealed, is likely to complicate relations between Libya and the west after they improved in recent years.

The oil rich North African country had made strides in shedding its image as an international pariah after its leader, Colonel Muammer Gadaffi, announced in 2003 that he would give up a program to make weapons of mass destruction.

He also agreed to pay massive compensation to the families of victims of the Lockerbie airline bombing for which a Libyan agent was convicted by a Scottish court.

But Franco Frattini, the EU justice commissioner, said the Libyan court decision against the medics was "an obstacle to cooperation with the EU". "I can't imagine that these executions will take place," he said. "The Libyan leadership has the instruments to review this decision."

The Bulgarian authorities also called on the Libyan leadership to intervene at once. They said the trial was "completely warped" because it disregarded input from the international scientific community.

Experts have said they believe the AIDS outbreak was caused by poor hygienic standards at the hospital. Professor Luc Montagnier, the renowned French doctor who first identified the HIV virus, testified in Libya that the AIDS epidemic had started a year before the defendants came to work at the hospital.

The medics, who say they were tortured, have been have been in custody for almost eight years. They were sentenced to death in May 2004 after an earlier trial, but that ruling was struck down a few months later and a retrial was ordered.

"I wouldn't regard it as clear in any way that the sentences will be carried out," said Oliver Miles, a former British ambassador to Libya.

"The underlying problem is that the perception of this inside Libya is different. There, it is not a problem of the foreign medics, but of hundreds of children who will probably die. There is huge anger, added to the fact that they have just seen the Lockerbie victims compensated at a rate of $10m a head."

Libya had demanded $10m in compensation for each child, but Bulgaria has refused, saying it would amount to an admission of guilt.

The EU earmarked $2m dollars in 2005 to help AIDS victims in Libya and some analysts suggest that, with the latest ruling in hand, Tripoli, may be able to absorb the anger of the families, while negotiating a bigger payout in return for the freedom of the medics.

Copyright 2006 Financial Times

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