AMSTERDAM, Jan 10, 2008 (AFP) - The Palestinian-born doctor held with five Bulgarian nurses in a Libyan prison for over eight years has filed a complaint against Libya with the UN Commission on Human Rights, his lawyer said Thursday.
"We have filed a complaint about violations of the human rights treaty by Libya. We are demanding a conviction and damages," Ashraf Juma Hajuj's Dutch lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld said.
According to the lawyer, Libya violated the rights of Hajuj because he was tortured in prison, did not get a fair trial, was illegally detained and deprived of his right to life by the death sentence the Libyan court handed down.
The UN Commission of Human Rights monitors violations of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a treaty signed by Libya.
Hajuj and five Bulgarian nurses had been sentenced to death and spent over eight years in a Libyan jail for allegedly infecting over 400 Libyan children with AIDS.
After an intervention from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his former first lady Cecilia, they were released in late July last year.
Hajuj was given Bulgarian nationality and is residing in Bulgaria but his family was given asylum in the Netherlands.
The six medics, who always maintained their innocence, said they were subjected to torture, including beatings, electric shocks, food and sleep deprivation, and even sexual abuse, in order to confess to their alleged crime.
"What matters was that he was accused of having infected children with HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) and he wants rehabilitation through an independent body's condemnation of Libya," Zegveld said.
According to the lawyer, Libya has the right to respond to the complaint once it is filed, before the commission studies it. A ruling could take several years.
In December, Hajuj also filed a complaint in France against Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi for torture during Kadhafi's French visit.
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