The retrial of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of injecting hundreds of Libyan children with the AIDS virus was adjourned again on Tuesday until August 29.
At the retrial five Libyan AIDS experts said they stood by a 61-page report they wrote in 2003 which says that someone had deliberately infected hundreds of children with HIV/AIDS at a Libyan hospital.
The hearing was resumed amid strict security measures and Judge Mahmoud al-Howeissa again rejected a defence request that the accused be allowed free on bail.
The six have now been in prison for seven years and maintain their innocence; all were present in court for Tuesday's hearing.
The six were condemned to death by firing squad in May 2004 after an initial trial in Benghazi in a case that has strained ties between Tripoli and Sofia.
The supreme court eventually ordered a retrial after an appeal last December.
The retrial began on May 11, with hearings being held every 15 days.
The nurses and doctor, who worked in a hospital in the eastern city of Benghazi, have been accused of having infected 426 children with HIV, of whom 52 have since died of AIDS.
The retrial, along with Libya's questionable human rights record, are being seen as hurdles to improved relations with the West just when Washington is in the process of resuming full diplomatic relations after decades of hostility.
The medics, Palestinian Ashraf Alhajouj and Bulgarians Snezhana Dimitrova, Nasya Nenova, Valentina Siropolu, Christiana Valcheva and Valia Cherveniashka have pleaded not guilty and said they had been beaten and tortured to make them confess.
The United states along with Bulgaria and the European Union believe the medics are innocent and have stalled the creation of an aid fund for Libya which analysts believe could give Tripoli a face-saving opportunity to free the six.