Libyans to drop AIDS case for payout

Five Bulgarian nurses condemned to death for infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV can be freed if Sofia pays compensation and gives the victims good medical treatment, the children's families said yesterday.

The statement followed similar comments by Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam on Sunday and a rebuke from Bulgaria, which said any payout would be an admission of guilt.

A Libyan court in May sentenced the nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death by firing squad for intentionally starting an epidemic in a Benghazi hospital that infected 426 children and has killed at least 40.

Washington and Brussels slammed the verdicts after AIDS experts testified the outbreak began before the medics arrived at the clinic, and the case is now hurting Libya's efforts to emerge from over 30 years of diplomatic isolation.

Ramadane Fitouri, chairman of the Children' Families Association, told Reuters that the group's officials had met a delegation of doctors from the European Union and given them a letter setting conditions to abandon the case.

"Send all the HIV sick children for treatment in Europe, build a hospital in Libya where the children can pursue their treatment and a just compensation must be granted in order for the families to drop the case," Mr Fitouri said.

Only the Libyan judiciary has the authority to change the verdicts or sentences, but diplomats say such comments by a representative of the children's families prepared the ground for any future legal decision.

But Bulgaria ruled out any exchange of funds yesterday and renewed a call for the medics to go free.

"We think it's necessary to stress once again that the medics are innocent, and in this context, we find the demands for payment of compensation unjustified and unrealistic," Deputy Foreign Minister Gergana Grancharova told Reuters. The nurses insist they were convicted only on confessions extracted by torture and say Tripoli has made them scapegoats to avoid a domestic backlash over the tragedy.

It is not clear how Libya would deal with the convicted Palestinian doctor if a solution was reached with Bulgaria.

Libya wants the Bulgarian government to talk to the families of the victims and agree compensation, Mr Shalgam said on Sunday.

He added that Libya wanted the talks to cover the construction of a hospital for AIDS victims, an idea Bulgaria has said it may consider.