TRIPOLI, May 31 (AFP) - Libya's high court on Tuesday delayed a ruling on an appeal by six foreign medics sentenced to death for infecting hundreds of children with the AIDS virus in a case that has raised international concern.
Judge Ali al-Allush said the case involving five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who have already been in custody for six years, had been put back to November 15 but he gave no further details.
The decision was hailed as encouraging by Bulgaria and the European Union, but both urged Libya to solve the issue urgently as the accused have already spent six years in prison.
Angry scuffles erupted outside the court at the judge's decision, with families of some children trying to get into the Tripoli courtroom and forcing officials to shut the doors to keep them out.
Chants of "Kill them or kill us" echoed round the building as security forces tried to control the demonstrators, some of whom vented their wrath against Othman al-Bizanti, the nurses' defence lawyer.
"Bizanti, you are a traitor, you sold your children for dollars," they shouted.
Bizanti, whose clients were not in court, said "justice must take the necessary time for everyone's rights to be respected. We accept the court's decision."
He added however: "But it is not fair to prolong the case and slow it (a decision)."
The six defendants were condemned in 2004 for injecting 380 children with blood transfusions infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Forty-seven of those children have died.
The accused maintain their innocence. Two nurses and the doctor initially confessed to charges but later said police had extracted the confessions with torture, including beatings and electric shocks.
The European Union, which has warned that the case could harm relations with Tripoli just as the former pariah state returns to the internation fold, called for a rapid resolution of the case.
"I welcome this decision. It indicates that the Libyan supreme court accepts that the original trial needs additional consideration and that the death sentence .. cannot be confirmed," said EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who visited Tripoli last week.
"After more than six years in jail it's imperative that a just solution be found as a matter of urgency," said Ferrero-Waldner, highlighting the fragile condition of the six defendants.
In Sofia, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov expressed hope the delay "opens the way to a full investigation of the truth about the tragedy and a just solution of the case of our compatriots, in whose innocence we have no doubt."
"An overall and unbiased look at the evidence on the case will lead to an overturning of the sentence and the quick return to Bulgaria of our medics," he added.
But Doctor Zdravko Georgiev, husband of one of the condemned nurses, told Bulgarian national radio in a call from Tripoli that the delay "was bad because they will have to spend another six months in jail."
The court was originally due to announce Tuesday whether it would agree to consider the appeal or reject it and thus confirm the death sentences. A positive decision for the condemned six would result in a fresh trial.
The judge's decision follows a weekend visit to Libya by Parvanov to plead for the lives of the six.
The defendants are relying on the testimony of AIDS experts, who swore under oath that the children were infected due to poor sanitary conditions at the hospital.
However, the first court that condemned the health workers to death rejected testimony from Luc Montaignier, the French doctor who first isolated the HIV virus, and Swiss and Italian colleagues, that the epidemic was due to a lack of hygiene.
Instead the court based its verdict on a report by Libyan experts that placed the blame on the foreign health workers.
At the weekend, Parvanov visited some of the children in hospital in the Mediterranean city of Benghazi where parents called for the death penalties be applied.
In Tripoli, Parvanov met the five nurses and also held four hours of talks with Libyan leader Kadhafi to plead for their lives and that of the doctor.
In December, Bulgaria refused an offer by Libya to free the nurses in exchange for the cash equivalent that Libya paid to victims of the airline attack over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.
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