Libya yesterday commuted death sentences on five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of deliberately infecting children with HIV, raising hopes they would soon be freed after eight years in jail. A compensation settlement was made earlier in the day to 460 families of HIV-positive Libyan children - $1 million per family.

"My personal interpretation is that their move is the equivalent of a pardon because the compensation money is the equivalent in Islam to 'blood money', which entails pardon," spokesman for the families Idriss Lagha said.

The release of the foreign medics would remove a major obstacle to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's return to the international stage after decades of diplomatic isolation.

The six were sentenced to death last year after being convicted of intentionally starting an HIV epidemic at a children's hospital in the city of Benghazi. They say they are innocent and that confessions central to their case were extracted under torture.

Foreign HIV experts say the infections started before the six arrived at the hospital and were more likely to be the result of poor hygiene.

The victims' families have said the case was part of a Western attempt to undermine Muslims and Libya. Fifty-six of the children have died, arousing widespread anger in Libya. The High Judicial Council, which is the country's highest judicial body and has the power to commute sentences or issue pardons, took over the case last week after Libya's Supreme Court upheld the death sentences.

"The High Judicial Council decided to commute the death sentences against the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor to life-imprisonment terms," it said in a brief statement.

The council had held off on ruling on the fate of the medics pending the families' acceptance of the financial deal.

Mr Lagha said many sources contributed to the compensation: "The money came from the Benghazi International Fund, which is financed by the EU, US, Bulgaria and Libya."

Chronology - Libyan trials of foreign medics

Libya's highest judicial body yesterday commuted the death sentences against six foreign medics to life imprisonment. Following is a chronology of key events in the case:

• February 1999 - Nineteen Bulgarian medical workers are detained in investigation into how children at a hospital in Benghazi became infected with HIV. Thirteen are later freed.

• February 7, 2000 - Trial formally opens in Tripoli of six Bulgarians, a Palestinian doctor and nine Libyans accused of deliberately infecting the children.

• June 2000 - The six Bulgarians say the confessions at the centre of their case were extracted through torture.

• June 2, 2001 - After 12 adjournments, trial begins in earnest.

• September 3, 2003 - French doctor Luc Montagnier testifies the epidemic broke out a year before the arrival of the Bulgarians.

• September 8 - Libyan prosecutors demand death sentences for the six Bulgarians and the Palestinian.

• May 6, 2004 - Five Bulgarian nurses - Nasya Nenova, Snezhana Dimitrova, Valentina Siropolu, Christiana Valcheva and Valia Cherveniashka - and the Palestinian doctor, Ashraf Alhajouj, are sentenced to death for deliberately infecting the children. The Bulgarian doctor, Zdravko Georgiev, is released on time served. The nine Libyan defendants are acquitted.

• June 7, 2005 - Nine Libyan policemen and a doctor are acquitted of torturing the medics.

• December 25 - The Supreme Court overturns the death sentences, sending case back to a lower court for retrial.

• January 21, 2006 - Victims' families demand total of E4.4 billion from donors to settle the case.

• December 6 - International scientists, who rebuilt history of virus from samples from the children, show the HIV subtype began infecting patients before the foreign medics arrived.

• December 19 - After a seven-month retrial, the five Bulgarians and the Palestinian are again found guilty and sentenced to death. Relatives of the children hail the ruling.

• January 29 - Saif al-Islam, a son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, says the six will not be executed.

• February 11, 2007 - The five nurses appear in criminal court on charges of defaming a Libyan policeman and a doctor by accusing them of extracting confessions by torture. Two other policemen later join the case as plaintiffs.

• May 27 - Defamation charges are dismissed. The plaintiffs' lawyer says they will appeal.

• July 11 - Libyan Supreme Court upholds a death sentence on the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor.

• July 17 - Libya commutes the death sentences to life imprisonment.

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