Libya HIV case nurses plead not guilty of defamation

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, sentenced to death for infecting Libyan children with HIV, yesterday pleaded not guilty to charges they defamed two Libyans by accusing them of torture, lawyers said.

A Libyan court sentenced the six, in jail since 1999, to death in December for starting an HIV epidemic in a hospital in the eastern town of Benghazi, to outcry from the West.

Leading scientists have repeatedly said the infections started before the medics arrived.

Libya has remained defiant under international pressure, saying others should not interfere in its courts. But Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's son and leading envoy Saif al-Islam said last month the six would not be executed.

In the HIV infection trial the Libyan prosecution based its case mainly on confessions from some of the nurses, who say they are innocent and were beaten and tortured to admit guilt.