EU ramps up pressure on Libya over HIV verdicts
Source: Reuters
(updates with background, details) By Darren Ennis STRASBOURG, France, Jan 17 (Reuters) - The European Union ramped up pressure on Libya on Wednesday to free five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death for infecting hundreds of children with HIV. The medics were found guilty in December -- the second time in the eight-year case -- for deliberately starting an outbreak in a Benghazi paediatric hospital that has infected more than 430 children and killed at least 50. Bulgaria, which joined the EU on Jan. 1, has been joined by the bloc and the United States in condemning the verdicts, saying they ignore evidence showing the medics are innocent. In Strasbourg, EU lawmakers prepared a resolution due to be voted on Thursday urging the Union and its members to consider rethinking ties with the oil-rich north African country unless the nurses, now EU citizens, go free. The draft called for member states and the EU executive to consider if the case is not resolved positively "a revision of the common policy of engagement with Libya in all relevant fields as the Union would deem appropriate". "This sends a clear signal of intent to Libya from the EU and with the support of the member states and the European Commission, it will show the EU's solidarity on the matter," Bulgarian MEP Philip Dimitrov told Reuters ahead of the vote. Sofia and its allies say the death sentences overlook testimony that the medics were tortured to confess and studies from international AIDS experts showing the epidemic started before they began working at the hospital in 1998. Sofia, Washington and Brussels insist the six are being used as scapegoats to deflect blame from a more likely culprit -- Libya's medical system. 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 Mediterranean port Benghazi is high, as most extended families have been affected by the epidemic. Analysts say 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. NON-NEGOTIABLE During a visit to Sofia on Wednesday, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said he will personally raise the issue with Gaddafi at a Jan. 27 meeting of the African Union. "We will use all instruments we believe are necessary and helpful to achieve the aim of bringing the nurses back to Bulgaria. ... Bulgaria's EU entry will help," Prodi said. Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin said last week Sofia expects the medics to remain in jail for at least another year during an appeals process, and if that is not successful, Sofia will try to further increase international pressure. But EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner, Bulgarian Meglena Kuneva, said there was only one acceptable outcome. "The freedom of the Bulgarian nurses and the doctor is non-negotiable," she told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. Reacting to reports Libya had offered to quash the verdicts in exchange for financial compensation and the release of a Libyan jailed in Scotland for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, she said the bloc would not back down. "This has nothing to do with the Lockerbie case. There isn't the slightest proof that these people are guilty and the EU will not allow any other case to be used as a leverage. It is intolerable," she said. An official of the European Commission said its leverage was limited given a lack of cooperation programmes with Libya. But Graham Watson, leader the EU assembly's third-largest Liberal group, said this was not an excuse. "We give them at least a million euros in aid every year and we do have joint projects," Watson told Reuters. "What I would also like to see is EU countries reconsidering their bilateral deals with Libya as a leverage and put pressure on Tripoli." 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 which, under Islamic law, would allow the victims' families to pardon the nurses. But Bulgaria has refused, saying any payment would be a false admission of guilt.
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