Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
BBC News - November 15, 2005
Ian Pannell, BBC News, Tripoli
She is one of the unlucky ones. One of 426 children infected with the HIV virus in a single outbreak at a regional hospital in Benghazi.
She was just a baby when she was diagnosed as HIV positive.
Over the years more and more of her friends have died. Since the outbreak was first identified in 1999, more than 50 children in all have passed away.
Mimicking the anger of the adults she calls for vengeance and the accused to be killed.
Firing squad
In this case, the accused are five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor. They have been charged with deliberately infecting the children as part of an Aids-related experiment.
In a trial last year they were found guilty and sentenced to death by firing squad.
They have denied all the charges. Their defence team has argued that the virus was already present at the hospital and that the children became infected through the use of unsterilised needles.
There is no official appeal, just an ongoing behind the scenes political process and final recourse to the Libyan Supreme Court.
Vengeance calls
On Tuesday, that court deferred making a decision for the second time. Now the families and the medics must wait until January for a ruling.
The courts must uphold the original sentence or order a retrial.
So something unusual happened in Tripoli on Tuesday.
There was a demonstration. Not an anti-government protest, that still remains a dangerous and almost unthinkable proposition. This was an angry demonstration by the families of the children.
They burned the Bulgarian flag, threw stones and sticks at diplomats and visiting journalists and called for vengeance.
Their anger was tinged with frustration at the handling of the case by the judiciary and even the political establishment.
They know that their children have become part of a much broader game of strategy being played far beyond the country's borders.
No 'blood money'
The European Union and the US have both been verbally strident, suggesting diplomatic and economic relations with Tripoli will remain in a holding pattern until the matter is resolved.
President George W Bush recently discussed their case, calling for the nurses to be freed immediately.
Libya has gone so far to repair relations with the West already, it seems almost inconceivable that it would carry out the death sentences.
It is also in the clear interest of Washington and Brussels to court Libyan compliance, as the country is often held up (especially by the White House) as a positive example of how so-called "rogue regimes" can be brought in from the cold by proactive diplomacy.
However, the Bulgarian government has said it won't offer the kind of "blood money" that might buy the nurses' freedom because that would imply guilt.
One idea being floated around the diplomatic community is establishing an independent fund or group to provide money or assistance to the children.
But the anger amongst the families and the local community is considerable and cannot be easily brushed to one side.
Caught between a rock and a hard place it is perhaps not surprising that further delay is the short-term response from the Libyan authority.
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