Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Voice of America - August 29, 2006
VOA News
The Libyan prosecutor in the retrial of six foreign medical professionals charged with infecting Libyan children with HIV has asked for the death penalty.
The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor are accused of intentionally infecting more than 400 children with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Fifty have died.
A Libyan court in 2004 sentenced the defendants to death by firing squad. But last year the country's supreme court threw out the verdict and and ordered a new trial. The defendants deny the charges. They say that they confessed under torture.
Medical experts say the AIDS epidemic among Libyan children predated the foreign medical workers' arrival in the country. Poor hygiene has been cited as the most likely cause of the outbreak.
The defendants were arrested in 1999 and have been imprisoned ever since.
Last year Bulgaria joined the United States and the European Union in agreeing to create an international fund to help combat AIDS in Libya.
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