Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
BBC News - December 19, 2006
Here BBC News looks at key dates in the case.
FEBRUARY 1999
Nineteen Bulgarian medical workers are arrested at a hospital in the Libyan city of Benghazi after an outbreak of HIV/Aids among children being treated there. Thirteen are later freed.
FEBRUARY 2000
Five Bulgarian women nurses and a Bulgarian male doctor go on trial along with a Palestinian doctor and eight Libyans on charges of deliberately infecting hundreds of children with HIV-contaminated blood products. The indictment says 23 of the infected children have died.
SUMMER 2000
As Bulgaria calls on Libya to ensure the accused receive a fair trial, and the medical workers complain of being tortured into signing confessions they could not read in Arabic, proceedings are repeatedly postponed.
SEPTEMBER 2000
After at least 13 adjournments, Libya says a verdict is imminent. Other charges against the Bulgarians include drinking in public and engaging in extramarital sex. The Bulgarians and Palestinian all plead not guilty. The Libyan defendants are freed on bail. Amnesty International reports "serious irregularities in... pre-trial proceedings" and Bulgaria accuses Libya of holding a political trial.
FEBRUARY 2002
After further adjournments, the case is passed from the Libyan People's Court in Tripoli, which deals with matters of state security, to an ordinary criminal court. The defendants' Libyan lawyer argues that the HIV infections were probably due to poor hygiene and the reuse of syringes in the hospital.
SEPTEMBER 2003
The French doctor who first isolated the HIV virus, Luc Montagnier, testifies that the hospital Aids epidemic was probably caused by poor hygiene, and that it began before the accused started working at the hospital.
MAY 2004
Libya convicts and sentences the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor to death by firing squad for infecting the children. The Bulgarian doctor is given a four-year sentence for currency smuggling.
DECEMBER 2004
Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelraham Shalgam says the guilty verdicts could be re-examined if victims are compensated.
JANUARY 2005
Nine Libyan policemen and a Libyan doctor go on trial accused of torturing the five Bulgarian nurses in custody. They are acquitted in June.
MAY 2005
Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov visits Libya to meet both the infected children and the imprisoned nurses as Sofia steps up diplomatic pressure on Muammar Gaddafi's government.
AUGUST 2005
The Bulgarian government rejects Libyan demands for "blood money" in order to secure the release of the five nurses, arguing that to pay any money would be to accept the women's guilt.
DECEMBER 2005
Bulgaria and Libya agree to set up a fund for the families of the infected Libyan children. Two days later, the Libyan Supreme Court overturns the convictions and orders a retrial of the Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor.
JANUARY 2006
Libyan families of infected children demand a total of 4.4bn euros ($5.5bn) in compensation from donors.
6 DECEMBER
International scientists publish a study in Nature magazine finding that the Libyan children were infected by a strain of HIV which must have entered the hospital before the Bulgarians began working there.
19 DECEMBER
A Libyan court again sentences the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor to death for knowingly infecting children with HIV. Their lawyer says they will appeal to the Supreme Court again.
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