Verdict in Libyan AIDS trial is put off to May 6

BENGHAZI, Libya (AFP) Apr 15, 2004
A Libyan court on Thursday postponed its verdict in the trial of six Bulgarian and one Palestinian health workers who face a possible death sentence if they are convicted of injecting blood tainted with the virus that causes AIDS into children in their charge.

The court, in the Mediterranean coastal city of Benghazi, had originally been due to give its verdict on Thursday, but it said the ruling would be delayed until May 6 because one of the judges was ill.

The seven, five nurses and a doctor from Bulgaria and a Palestinian doctor, are accused of having injected blood products tainted with the HIV virus into children at a hospital in the city, infecting some 400 of them of whom 43 have since died.

The trial began in February 2000, and all the accused have pleaded not guilty.

Both Bulgaria and the European Union have demanded that the seven, who have now been detained for five years, be released and allowed to go home.

Bulgarian diplomats were present at Thursday's court appearance.

TERRA.WIRE