Thread: Conviction in Deliberate AIDS Infection

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Six Convicted for Infecting 426 Children With HIV
By Lamine GhanmiReuters

TRIPOLI (Dec. 19) - A Libyan court sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a
Palestinian doctor to death on Tuesday for deliberately infecting hundreds
of children with the virus that causes AIDS, provoking a chorus of Western
condemnation.

The ruling, the latest episode in what experts say has been a deeply
politicized case, could be a setback for Libya's efforts to improve ties
with the West.

The children's families at the trial hailed the ruling as a welcome act of
defiance of the West.

"Justice has been done. We are happy," said Subhy Abdullah, whose daughter
Mona, 7, died from AIDS contracted at the hospital in the town of Benghazi
where the medics worked.

"They should be executed quickly," Abdullah told Reuters after the guilty
verdicts were announced by Judge Mahmoud Haouissa at the end of a
seven-month retrial of the case.

In Bulgaria, Polina Dimitrova, a daughter of one of the nurses, Snezhana
Dimitrova, told Reuters: "This is such a disgrace. I simply cannot believe
such injustice can be done."

The six were accused of infecting 426 Libyan children, more than 50 of
whom have since died, with HIV at a hospital in Benghazi in the late
1990s.

The medics had denied the charge and their defense lawyer said they
planned to appeal against their latest conviction.

They were first found guilty in a 2004 trial and sentenced to death by
firing squad. But the supreme court quashed the ruling last year, citing
unspecified failings in the case, and ordered a retrial.

European Union Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said he
was shocked and disappointed by the ruling. Amnesty International
condemned the decision.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin said: "The decision is deeply
disappointing. The Libyan court did not take into consideration all the
proof of the nurses' innocence."

Western analysts have said the case is embroiled in power politics and
forecast a solution could take many more months.

Some analysts suspect Libya is likely to keep the six as bargaining chips
until talks yield a financial payout from the international community to
appease the children's families.

Haouissa did not say how the six should be executed but Libya's preferred
method is a firing squad.

DEFIANCE OF THE WEST

Relatives of the children attending the hearing broke down in tears at the
verdicts, shouting: "God is greatest."

Referring to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, relatives shouted: "Go ahead,
our falcon, in defiance of the West."

The six sat calmly as the verdicts were announced.

"The verdicts will change nothing. we are innocent," the Palestinian
doctor, Ashraf Alhajouj, told Reuters from behind the bars of the dock.

Luc Montagnier, a French doctor who first detected the HIV virus, has said
the infections were first present in the Benghazi hospital in 1997, a year
before the medics arrived.

The case has hampered oil producer Libya's rapprochement with the West,
which moved up a gear when it abandoned its pursuit of nuclear, chemical
and biological weapons in 2003.

Washington backs Bulgaria and the European Union in saying the medics are
innocent.

Tripoli has demanded 10 million euros ($13.11 million) in compensation for
each infected child's family. Bulgaria and its allies have rejected this,
saying a payout would admit guilt. But they are trying to arrange a fund
for treatment at European hospitals for the children.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has reason to free the six, analysts say,
because it slows Tripoli's normalization of ties with the West after
decades of being an outcast.

But freeing the defendants would put the focus on alleged negligence and
poor hygiene in Libyan hospitals, which Western scientists say are the
real culprits in the case.

The EU's Frattini, who has sought greater cooperation with Libya on
migration control, said: "My first reaction is great disappointment. I am
shocked...I strongly hope that somehow the Libyan authorities will rethink
this decision."

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seriously what the fuck, were supposed to be CURING this disease people not SPREADING it. i hope they lose their appeal and do get sentenced to death. this is worse than those doctors who killed patients who were already sick! now youre just infecting children with the most dangerous disease ever known and simply denying it happened, exonerating proof should be bought forward if the Bulgarian government thinks this is injust.

Why would they even do that? What a bunch of sick people...and the doctor has the balls to go and say he is Palestinian. Not making things better are they?

These people single handedly raised the AID's count of the world.

456children...thats how many they found there is probly more somewhere.

And if those people did not do it someone must have. Shouldent they investigate a little more?

Dude... comeon. That article doesn't give near enough info to make any sort of claim like that. The whole thing is fishy. Everything pends on the Libya government. The defense lawyer for the accused wasn't even allowed to speak to them for 3 months, during which the 5 nurses were supposedly tortured and told they must convert to Islam.

The Libyrian government has been working to make ties with the west. One thing they had to do recently, because their country is a hotbed for terrorist activity apparently, was shell out a lot of change to families for the UTA and La Belle Disco bombings to get governments to stop bitching at them for those responsible and what not (actually, I think the entire government was formaly accused, but w/e). Now what do we have... hrmm... an offer to release the accused for a payment to each family? Bitter much?

From looking a bit, I can find no reason why doctors and nurses from these regions would want to do such a thing. I can't find a history linking them, save they were all 3 under control of the Turks at one time. :P

The whole thing sounds fishy... but I will say this, if they are guilty... then a fireing squad is far to honorable way to die.

+1 to volvogga

Luc Montagnier, a French doctor who first detected the HIV virus, has said
the infections were first present in the Benghazi hospital in 1997, a year
before the medics arrived.

do you other read the article before flaming the nurses ????
how could they be responsible for something which was already there and spreading !!!????.... O.o

AND :

Tripoli has demanded 10 million euros ($13.11 million) in compensation for
each infected child's family.

They are so out of reality, but it at least tend to show they did that to have money

Really, read the whole damn article. And make sure you read a few others to try to see if any of those articles are just being biased.

Originally Posted by http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/11/14/libya12013.htm

Four of the six defendants, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, told Human Rights Watch in May that they confessed after enduring torture, including beatings, electric shock and sexual assault.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

On December 7, 2006, the influential science journal Nature published a new study which examined the mutation history of the HIV found in blood samples from some of the children, and found that the strain had been present in Libya before the Benghazi Six arrived, based on the rate of genetic mutation in viruses. This added support to the earlier work of Prof. Luc Montagnier and Prof. Vittorio Colizzi. The news broke on December 6, and was quickly published across the globe. As of December 19, the Libyan government had not yet responded, but the head of the Association of the HIV infected children in the country claimed that the study had no scientific value

Originally Posted by http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06832717.htm

"The evidence shows the chain of infection started a few years before the arrival of the foreign staff accused of causing it deliberately," Dr Tulio de Oliveira, a molecular virologist at Oxford University in England, said in an interview.

A report had been commissioned, in 2003, carried out by the co-discoverer of AIDS and others for UNESCO, finding that 21 children out of 450 cases were infected at least a year before the Bulgarian nurses arrived in Libya and that the epidemic was caused by "certain incorrect practices used by the medical and nursing staff at that time."

hey dont go blaming me for what the article says. i didnt pull it outta my ass, i recieved it and thought it would be an interesting thing since no one has ever done this before... and plus dont act like torture of criminals is uncommon, hell in regular police precints innocent people have plungers shoved in their asses for no reason, so for allegedly murdering fifty people and the future murder of 400 more id expect no less. sure the article is debateable but thats the whole point damnit! im skeptical of the government as well, no government should ask for money in return for criminal lives. i already said if the bulgarian government can prove that they didnt do it then by all means why havent they???

But freeing the defendants would put the focus on alleged negligence and
poor hygiene in Libyan hospitals, which Western scientists say are the
real culprits in the case.

Blaming 1 doctor and a few nurses to cover the negligence and poor maintenance of your hospitals? What a despicable action.

How is it that you do not allow the ones that are being accused to prove their innocence? What kind way to enforce laws is that? That is not fair in any kind of approach you may give to it.

Some analysts suspect Libya is likely to keep the six as bargaining chips
until talks yield a financial payout from the international community to
appease the children's families.

It is sad what people do for just money. And even more sad, actually sad up until the point that it can make you laugh, that people involve religion into this.

This is a mere case of negligence and corruption. Doings of man, nothing related to any kind of god or deity.

well like i said before you crucify the Libyan government of being muderous money hungry scam artists, lets see that exonerating evidence that has mysteriously not been presented by the defense for the last ten years.

You guys do realize there is a cure for AIDS.

Originally Posted by shinigamiwolf

You guys do realize there is a cure for AIDS.

uhhh... no.