Family settlements may spare Bulgarian medics in HIV case

The saga of Bulgarian medical workers sentenced to death for allegedly infecting 426 Libyan children with HIV-Aids appears to be heading towards a political solution despite a decision by Libya's Supreme Court to uphold their convictions.

On Tuesday, a mediating body headed by a son of the Libyan leader, Moammar Gaddafi, announced that a financial settlement had been reached with the families of the infected children.

And next week, Libya's High Judicial Council meets to consider the case.

The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were arrested in 1999 and sentenced in 2004 for deliberately infecting the children at Benghazi hospital with HIV-tainted blood. The sentence was confirmed in 2006 at a retrial.

The prosecution accused the defendants of conspiring with foreign intelligence agencies to cause an Aids epidemic. All six say they are innocent of the charges, which caused international outrage, and the Bulgarian women alleged that they were tortured into confessing. President George Bush publicly appealed for their release last month. Yesterday's decision by the Supreme Court, which rejected the latest appeal of the six, came as no surprise to the European Union, which has been involved in the negotiations brokered by the Gaddafi Foundation.

The Bulgarian President, Georgi Parvanov, said: "We expect and insist on a swift solution by Libya's High Judicial Council to finally complete the case." The Bulgarian Prime Minister, Sergei Stanishev, spoke of solving the case "on a political level".

The Judicial Council is due to meet next week and has the authority to confirm or cancel the sentences.

The US State Department's spokesman, Sean McCormack, said the deal announced by the Gaddafi Foundation was "positive news", although no details were yet available.

"If this is a step towards resolving this issue in the near future, then certainly that is positive. There still are some judicial steps they have to go through," he said.

The EU has been discussing a deal which would establish a fund of tens of millions of dollars to help care for the infected children, although Bulgaria refuses to term the agreement "compensation" for fear of implying that the medical workers are guilty.

Fifty-six of the infected children have already died.

Next week's meeting of the Judicial Council could produce a face-saving solution for both sides.

If the six are set free, Libya would have allowed its judicial system to emerge without a stain while preserving its relations with the West, which have dramatically improved since Colonel Gaddafi renounced weapons of mass destruction in 2003.

The Libyan Foreign Minister, Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam, said yesterday that the Judicial Council would deliberate on non-judicial considerations, including "compensation".

"It is not known how many sessions the High Council will meet before taking a decision," he said. "The council will take into consideration several factors like compensation, the age and the time spent by the prisoners in jail," he said.