The Libyan Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences for six foreign medical workers imprisoned on disputed charges that they infected Libyan children with HIV. But there is still a chance they could be spared execution. The ruling has been greeted with dismay in Europe, where only a day earlier hopes had been raised that a deal was in the works to free them. VOA Correspondent Challiss McDonough reports from our Middle East bureau in Cairo.
Libyan Judge Fathi Dahan, center, and his assistants leave Supreme Court, 11 Jul 2007
Libya's Supreme Court rejected the medics' appeal and upheld the death penalty against five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor. The case now moves onto the government-controlled High Judicial Council, which still has the power to commute the death sentences or pardon the medics. The Council will consider the matter on Monday.
Bulgarian and EU officials immediately condemned the Supreme Court ruling, a day after reports that a deal had been reached to free them.
Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov called for a quick solution.
EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the European Parliament he 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," he said.
Late Tuesday, the non-profit Gaddafi Foundation, run by the son of Libya's leader, said a deal had been reached to free the health workers.
Intense behind-the-scenes negotiations have been aimed at securing their release. EU officials say the European Union has agreed to establish a fund to pay for the children's future medical care.
Libya considers the payments to the families to be compensation, but Bulgaria has rejected that term, saying it implies that the nurses are guilty. Bulgaria and the European Union are calling it humanitarian aid.
EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said the ruling is likely to hurt recent efforts for European-Libyan cooperation on a number of issues, including migration.
"This decision taken by the supreme court does not encourage the EU to strengthen relations because frankly speaking, we have to react, from my point of view, negatively, totally negatively, to the fact that a group of European citizens are condemned to death, and they are not guilty from our point of view," he said.
The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor have been in Libyan prisons since 1999. Several of them have said they were tortured to extract confessions.
They were convicted of deliberately infecting 483 children with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Many international scientists and medical experts have testified that the first children were infected before the medics even arrived in Libya. They say the infections were really caused by negligence and poor hygiene procedures in the Benghazi hospital.
Bulgaria recently gave Bulgarian citizenship to the Palestinian doctor who is imprisoned alongside the Bulgarian nurses, to ensure that he is included in any deal to free them.
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.