TRIPOLI, 8 Dec (AFP) - Libya said it would drop a case against five Bulgarian nurses condemned to death on charges of spreading AIDS if Sofia paid out 10 million euros for every child infected with the virus at a Libyan hospital.
"We are asking for damages of 10 million euros (13.3 million dollars) for every victim infected by the virus," said Ramadan al-Fituri, who heads the association representing victims in the case, late Wednesday.
One day earlier, Fituri listed three conditions under which Libya was prepared to drop charges against the five nurses and a Palestinian doctor who were condemned to death in May by a Libyan court.
The tribunal found that they had infected hundreds of children in a hospital in Benghazi in northern Libya with the HIV virus.
But medical experts testified at the trial that the infections were the result of poor hygiene at the hospital and that the epidemic was under way before the nurses arrived.
The conditions listed by Fituri were care for the infected children in special medical centres in Europe, construction of a specialized hospital in Benghazi and the supply of all the necessary medicines and the payment of "adequate compensation".
On Sunday, Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelraham Shalgham said the verdict against the nurses could be overturned if Bulgaria paid compensation to the families of AIDS-infected children, 46 of whom have died so far.
The Bulgarian government rejected the proposal, saying it would not pay compensation because it did not believe the nurses were guilty.
All six defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges. Two of the nurses and the doctor said during the trial that they were tortured into making confessions.
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