INTERVIEW-Sofia says nurses face another year in Libya jail
Source: Reuters
By Michael Winfrey and Justyna Pawlak SOFIA, Jan 11 (Reuters) - Bulgaria expects five of its nurses and a Palestinian doctor, sentenced to death in Libya for infecting children with HIV, to remain in jail for at least another year during an appeals process. Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin said he hoped the process would finish this year and, if not successful, Sofia would try to increase international pressure to free them. A Libyan court sentenced the medics to death last month -- the second time in the eight year case -- for intentionally starting an HIV epidemic, despite what Sofia and its allies say is overwhelming scientific evidence showing they are innocent. "We are doing everything possible to speed it up," Kalfin told Reuters in an interview on Thursday. "If there is anything that works in Libya, it is international pressure." Bulgaria, a European Union member since Jan. 1, and its allies in Brussels and Washington have been pressing Tripoli to release the medics. "If we can make the Libyans do the best they can, we can exhaust this legal procedure this year," Kalfin said. Asked if he expected the nurses to spend at least another year in Libya, he said: "Probably, yes". The case has hurt Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's efforts to renew ties with the West after decades of diplomatic isolation, while anger in the oil-rich, north African country is high, as some 50 of the more than 430 infected children have died. But the United States, EU countries, and other of Bulgaria's allies say the nurses are being used as scapegoats to deflect blame from a more likely culprit -- Libya's medical system. They point to evidence that the nurses were tortured to confess and studies by international AIDS experts showing the outbreak probably started at the Benghazi children's hospital before they began working there in 1998. FATE UNCLEAR Analysts say that despite Libya's insistence that its court is independent, the medics' fate ultimately lies in Gaddafi's hands and is subject to the wider geo-political drama of his rapprochement efforts. Libya has said the case might be resolved by an executive body -- a so-called high judicial council -- in which Gaddafi's government could overrule the court's decision. It has also demanded 10 million euros ($12.95 million) per child in compensation from Bulgaria which, under Islamic law, would allow the victims' families to pardon the nurses. Bulgaria and its allies have created an international fund to give treatment, medicine and other aid to the children and their families, but hopes the fund could be a potential avenue towards resolving the case have hit a snag. In a speech last month, Gaddafi said the 3 million euros ($3.9 million) in the fund was not enough. But Kalfin repeated Bulgaria's stance that it will not pay compensation, as doing so would be a false admission of guilt, and there was no way Libya could expect more money. "From the very outset, we said what the fund could do and how far it would go. We are not talking about billions, or compensation, or blood money, it was never the case," he said. "If they are not happy with that, it will be their problem."
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