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
Q: What do the charges relate to?
The medical workers were arrested as long ago as 1999 and accused of deliberately spreading HIV among children at a hospital in the city of Benghazi. Their trial began in 2000.
Q: How have the accused pleaded?
They have been protesting their innocence and have retracted confessions they say they made under torture. A group of police officers involved in the alleged cases of torture were acquitted in a separate trial.
Q: How strong was the prosecution's case?
It was dismissed by a number of scientific authorities on the subject, including Luc Montagnier, the French co-discoverer of HIV, and Professor Vittorio Colizzi of Rome University. They stated in their testimony that the HIV infections pre-dated the defendants' arrival in the Benghazi hospital in 1998, and the outbreak had been caused, most likely, by the poor standards of hygiene prevailing there. But their testimony was disregarded by the court.
A study of the children's blood, published in Nature magazine in December 2006, backed this point, but came too late to be submitted to the court.
Q: Why was the foreign experts' testimony ignored?
The HIV infections have affected at least 426 children, 52 of whom have since died. This tragedy has, at various sensitive moments, raised tensions in the area. The victims and their families have been repeatedly calling for the verdicts - death by firing squad - to be carried out. In addition, the Benghazi region, with its own strong tribal traditions, and what some observers see as its latent Muslim fundamentalist tendencies, has represented something of a problem for the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi.
Q: Does that suggest that the accused - all of them foreigners - have been treated as scapegoats?
That is certainly what the accused and their supporters believe. And if that were, indeed, the case, it would explain why it would be difficult for the Libyan authorities to accept the international experts' testimony that the reason for the outbreak had to do with the general lack of hygiene in the Benghazi hospital.
Q: What has Bulgaria been doing to help its citizens?
The Bulgarian government has been working behind the scenes, lobbying at the United Nations, in the United States and within the European Union - which it is due to join in 2007. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has expressed the hope that the nurses will be freed.
Q: How much is that likely to sway the Libyan leader?
Mr Gaddafi has been working on his country's international rehabilitation, which has advanced in recent years following his compliance with the Lockerbie judgement and Libya's announcement three years ago that it was abandoning its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, Mr Gaddafi does not want to be seen to be acting under pressure from the EU and the US.
Q: Is there a possible face-saving formula?
Yes, an international fund has been set up, with EU, US, Libyan and Bulgarian participation, to help the infected children and their families with a new hospital in Benghazi and treatment abroad. It remains to be seen whether such assistance - as a sign of humanitarian solidarity, not as an acceptance of responsibility - might help resolve the issue.
Q: Do the defendants have the right to appeal?
The court's judgement could go back on appeal for a final ruling by Libya's Supreme Court.
Q: Could Bulgaria "buy" its citizens' freedom?
Tripoli has demanded 10m euros (6.7m pounds) for each infected child's family. Under Islamic law, victims' relatives can withdraw death sentences in return for reparations. Bulgaria and its supporters have rejected the idea, saying any payout would be an admission of guilt.
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