WASHINGTON, May 6 (AFP) - The United States on Thursday denounced as "unacceptable" the convictions and death sentences handed down by a Libyan court against five Bulgarian medical workers and a Palestinian doctor who had been accused of intentionally spreading the AIDS virus.
The State Department said legal and the human rights of the accused had been violated numerous times since the allegations were first made five years ago and vowed to continue to raise the matter with Libyan officials.
"We have been following this every closely for five years," spokesman Richard Boucher said. "We have been very critical of Libyan violations of the legal and human rights of the Bulgarian medics. We find the verdict that was pronounced in the court to be unacceptable."
Earlier Thursday, the court in Benghazi convicted the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor over the death from AIDS of children in a hospital there and sentenced them to death. A Bulgarian doctor was jailed for four years in a separate case.
Boucher said the United States sympathized with the families of the more than 400 children who were infected with HIV, of whom 43 have since died, but that the accused, who have a right to appeal the verdicts, should be released and allowed to return home.
"We recognize the great human tragedy that occured in Banghazi and our deepest sympathy is extended to the families of the 400 hundred children who were infected with the HIV/AIDS virus," he told reporters.
Boucher said the US diplomats attached to the newly opened US interests section in Tripoli had attended the trial and would be following up on the matter with Libyan officials.
"We urge the government of Libya to take steps to resolve this case quickly," he said.
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi had said in 2001 that the case might involve a US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or Israeli Mossad plot to experiment with the virus.
But the lawyers for the defendants have said their clients are being used as scapegoats for inadequate sterilization of instruments at the pediatric hospital in Benghazi before the Bulgarians and the Palestinian arrived in 1998.
All pleaded not guilty to the charges when the trial opened four years ago and the verdicts have been postponed several times while Bulgaria and the European Union have demanded that the suspects be released and allowed to go home.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Wednesday after meeting with visiting Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy that Washington had been pressing and would continue to call on Libya to release the seven health workers.
Neither Boucher nor Powell could say whether the court verdict would affect the dramatic rapprochement between the United States and Libya which has come about since Tripoli renounced weapons of mass destruction in December.
040506
AF040537
©AFP 2004.. All Rights Reserved. AFP articles contained on the AEGiS web site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without AFP's prior written permission. You may make one copy of each article for your personal, non-commercial use only; more copies would require AFP's prior written permission. http://www.afp.com/
AEGiS is a 501(c)3, not-for-profit, tax-exempt, educational corporation. AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, Elton John AIDS Foundation, the National Library of Medicine, Bridgestone Firestone Trust Fund and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2004. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.
©1990, 2004 - AEGiS. AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content.
