SOFIA, Dec 7 (AFP) - The United States will continue to push for the release of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death in Libya on suspect charges of spreading AIDS, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday.
"We have been pressing the Libyans on every occasion to resolve this question and release the Bulgarian nurses," Powell told reporters after meeting here with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy.
"We think the facts in this case are clear," he said. "We hope that justice will be served and compassion will be shown."
Powell, in Bulgaria to attend a ministerial meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said he was aware of recent comments from Tripoli hinting at a change in its hardline position on the matter but could not say whether the remarks suggested an imminent resolution.
"I don't know if that counts for a change in position or progress, but in all of our conversations with the Libyans we will continue to press the case for the release of the Bulgarian nurses," he said.
The five nurses and a Palestinian doctor were condemned to death in May by a Libyan court which convicted them of having 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.
On Sunday, Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelraham Shalgham said the verdict could be overturned if Bulgaria paid compensation to the families of AIDS-infected children, of whom 46 have died so far.
A day later, 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 and two of the nurses and the doctor said during the trial that they were tortured into making confessions.
They are appealing against their sentences and the European Union has called for the case to be resolved as soon as possible.
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