Final appeal for six sentenced to die after Aids infections

TRIPOLI Five nurses from Bulgaria and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death for infecting Libyan children with the Aids virus began a final appeal yesterday, after eight years in custody for a crime that they say they did not commit.

The Libyan supreme court is expected to uphold the death sentences against the six, but the verdict is expected to pave the way for a compensation package for the children’s families, to be worked out between the Bulgarian Government and the European Union, and for the sentences to be commuted.

The six medical staff were convicted of infecting 438 children, 56 of whom have died, with HIV-tainted blood at a hospital in Benghazi. Foreign health experts have said that the epidemic was probably the result of poor hygiene. ( AFP)