Bulgarian nurse Snezhana Dimitrova sits in the caged dock at the trial of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor in Tripoli, Libya on Tuesday, December 19, 2006. (Ben Curtis/AP)
Libyan court upholds death sentences in HIV case
TRIPOLI, Libya — The Libyan Supreme Court upheld Wednesday the death sentences of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of infecting children with HIV. But the verdict, which has caused an international outcry, could still be overturned by Libya's Supreme Judiciary Council due to meet on Monday.
Two dozen family members of the over 400 children contaminated with the AIDS virus rejoiced in front of the Supreme Court in Tripoli at the announcement of the verdict.
"The court has accepted the appeal in principal but rejects its content, therefore the court decided to uphold the verdict against them," Judge Fathi Dahan said.
"This is a victory for the Libyan judiciary system. We are awaiting the execution of the death sentence," said the families' lawyer Al-Monseif Khalifa.
The five nurses and the Palestinian doctor, who have been jailed for the past eight years, were not present in the court for the appeal hearing.
The detainees deny the accusations, saying confessions that they infected the children were extracted under torture. Defense experts and outside scientific reports have stated the children were contaminated because of unhygienic conditions at the hospital where they worked.
In announcing the verdict, the judge mentioned nothing about a settlement with families of victims announced Tuesday by a foundation headed by the son of longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
But Salah Abdessalem, the spokesman for the Gadhafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, said a deal had been reached that was "acceptable to all parties" and would "end the crisis."
Abdessalem told The Associated Press after the Court's verdict Wednesday that "There is still a settlement." He would not elaborate.
Libyan officials close to the arrangement said it involved financial compensation for the families and that the death sentences were expected to be commuted to prison time. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
On Tuesday, Idriss Lagha, the head of the Association for the Families of the HIV-Infected Children, also said that a deal would be announced in a couple of days.
Often referred to as "blood money," compensation for death or suffering is a legal provision in the traditional Islamic code that is widespread in parts of the Middle East and North Africa.
Libya has been under intense international pressure to free the six medics and the case has become a sticking point in the regime's attempts to rebuild ties with the United States and Europe.
Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam said Libya's highest judicial authority, known as the Supreme Judiciary Council, would meet to statute on their case Monday. The council, which is headed by the minister of justice, could approve or reject the convictions, or set lighter sentences.
Several European leaders on Wednesday expressed disappointment at the court's ruling but said they remained hopeful that the case would still be resolved.
"We regret that these decisions have been taken, but I'd also like to express my confidence that a solution will be found," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov said he expected "a swift solution by Libya's Supreme Judicial Council to finally complete the case."
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack also called for the medics to be set free despite the latest verdict.
Support for the nurses has become a national cause in Bulgaria, and relatives of the detainees gathered in front of the Libyan embassy in Sofia to release white doves in the sky in a sign of hope that their loved ones will be soon free to return home.
The six began working at the hospital in the city of Benghazi in 1998 and were arrested the next year after more than 400 children there contracted HIV. Fifty of the children have died.
They were convicted and sentenced to death in 2004, but the Supreme Court ordered a retrial after an international outcry over the verdicts.
In a ruling that shocked many in Europe, the second trial ended with the same verdict in December despite a scientific report weeks earlier saying HIV was rampant in the hospital before the six began working there.
The Gadhafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, which announced the settlement Tuesday, is headed by Gadhafi's son, Seif al Islam. He has been active for months in trying to resolve the case of the medics.
The Association "Freedom for the Bulgarian Nurses" uses this symbol to represent the cause of the Bulgarian nurses. It represents a ribbon with the colours of the Bulgarian flag, with the words "You are not alone" in Bulgarian and English.

The Supreme Court in Libya has upheld the death sentence for five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian medical intern condemned for infecting 426 children with HIV. Just one day ago, a deal to free the foreign medics was announced.

The six defendants were not present at the court ruling, while family members of the children rejoiced when the judge confirmed the verdict. "This is a victory for the Libyan judiciary system. We are awaiting the execution of the death sentence," said Al-Monseif Khalifa, a lawyer for the plaintives.

E.U. Commission President  remains hopeful that the medics will receive clemency. "We regret that these decisions have been made, but I also want to express my confidence that a solution will be found," Barroso told the . 

  called for a quick solution. He said the verdict came as no surprise, and expressed his hope for a swift final solution. The case will now move to the Supreme Judiciary Council which will hear the case on Monday, according to Libya's Foreign Minister, Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam. The Council is headed by the Justice Minister of Libya.

Late Tuesday, the Gaddafi Foundation, a non-profit run by the son of Libya's ''de facto'' leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, said a deal had been reached to free the health workers. The head of the Association for the Families of the HIV-Infected Children, Idriss Lagha, also said announced that a deal could be reached soon.

After the verdict today, Salah Abdessalem, a spokesman for the Gadhafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, reconfirmed to the ''Associated Press'' that a settlement to free the detainees still exists, which he said was acceptable to all parties and would end the crisis, without giving further details. 

Unnamed officials who wished to remain anonymous disclosed the deal would involve financial compensation in exchange for the death sentences being commuted to a prison sentence, according to the Associated Press. E.U. officials say the European Union would agree to establish a fund of tens of millions of dollars to pay for the children's future medical care. Bulgaria and the European Union are calling it humanitarian aid instead of compensation, which would imply that their citizens would be guilty.

The convicted nurses and medical intern began working in the El-Fath Children's Hospital in Benghazi in 1998, and were arrested and jailed one year later when over 400 children were found to be infected with HIV -over 50 have died since. They were sentenced to death in 2004, and again after a retrial last December which came after an international outcry about the affair.

A scientific report by professors  (one of the original discoverers of the virus causing AIDS) and  used as evidence for the defence in the case said that the virus causing AIDS was widely spread in the hospital before the health workers even arrived, and that the infections were due to negligence and poor hygiene procedures in the Benghazi hospital. The prosecution introduced a report of Libyan scientists saying that this was not the case. The detainees have said that they have been tortured to make confessions.