Libyan retrial of foreign medics stalls yet again

The retrial of six foreign medics accused of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the virus that causes AIDS has been adjourned yet again until September 12th.

The six have been detained since 1999, and this latest delay is because Touhami Toumi, a defence lawyer for the Palestinian doctor Ashraf Alhajouj, failed to appear in court, and one of the Bulgarian nurses is ill.

Lawyer Abdallah al Maghribi says Libyan law bans court hearings if there is no lawyer to assist a defendant.

The Libyan prosecutor is calling for the death penalty for five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor on trial for a second time on charges they intentionally infected 426 children in their care at a Benghazi hospital in the late 1990s with HIV.

A previous trial of the six resulted in their conviction and death sentences by firing squad were handed out.

Following international outcry, the supreme court overturned the convictions in December 2005, and sent the case back to a lower court.

But the retrial which began in May 2006 has suffered numerous delays and adjournments.

The six defendants deny the accusations and the defence argues that there were as many as 1,500 HIV cases in Benghazi before the hospital infections occurred and any confessions were the result of torture by prison authorities.

The case has held up any hopes of a return to normal relations between Libya and the West, in particular the United States.

Both the U.S. and the European Union have supported Bulgaria in saying the medics are innocent.

Should Toumi fail to state whether he will attend court on Sept. 12 the doctor will be given another lawyer.

At that time the court is expected to examine details concerning a search of the home of one of the nurses when samples of infected blood were said to have been found which is the key evidence of the prosecution.

The medics, Bulgarians Snezhana Dimitrova, Nasya Nenova, Valentina Siropolu, Christiana Valcheva, Valia Cherveniashka and Palestinian Ashraf Alhajouj have pleaded not guilty and have repeatedly been refused bail they have said that they were beaten and tortured to make them confess.

The lawyers for the families of the infected children claim the session was delayed deliberately.