Neglect caused Libya HIV cases, court told
Source: Reuters
By Salah Sarrar TRIPOLI, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Poor hygiene and neglect led to the infection of hundreds of Libyan children with the HIV virus, a defence lawyer said on Tuesday at the retrial of six foreign medics accused of deliberating infecting the children. "I remind you that international scientists found that the epidemic was not through injections but through the re-use of syringes," said Touhami Toumi, a lawyer for one of the six, Palestinian doctor Ashraf Alhajouj. "The epidemic in the hospital was not because of deliberate injections (of HIV) but because of poor hygiene, neglect and lack of equipment." Five Bulgarian nurses and Alhajouj face a possible death penalty on charges they intentionally infected 426 Libyan children with HIV at a hospital in Benghazi. Luc Montagnier, a French doctor who first detected the HIV virus, has said it emerged in the Benghazi hospital in 1997, a year before the medics arrived. He said in testimony at their first trial the children were most probably infected through negligence and poor hygiene. The medics were found guilty nonetheless and sentenced to death by firing squad. But Libya's supreme court last year overturned the ruling and ordered the case returned to a lower court. The medics have denied the charges in both their first and second trials and have repeatedly testified that they were tortured to make them confess. "Torture and ... material and moral pressure were practised on the accused," Altomi told the court. He said this pressure took the form of imprisonment in substandard conditions, on one occasion, in the earlier stage of their detention, being confined with police dogs. In June 2005 a Libyan court acquitted nine Libyan policemen and a doctor of torturing the medics, who have been detained since 1999. The medics' case, as well as questions over Libya's human rights record, have been seen as hurdles to expanded links with the West at a time when Washington is in the process of resuming full diplomatic ties with Tripoli after decades of hostility. The retrial has been delayed repeatedly since it began in May. The court has dismissed demands by lawyers to release the medics on parole, arguing the charges are too serious for the defendants to be free. Washington backs Bulgaria and the European Union in saying the medics are innocent. Libya has proposed compensation which, the authorities in Tripoli say, would open a way for the pardon and the release of the medics. Sofia rejected the proposal. Lawyers of the families of the infected children have asked for 15 million Libyan dinars ($11.6 million) for each child in compensation. With more than 400 children involved, the total compensation demanded would come at around $4.6 billion.
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