Translated material
Killer doctors or doctor killers?
The last hope of doctors sentenced in Libya
Yesterday, the Libyan Supreme Court re- sentenced six foreign doctors from the Al-Fatih Children's Hospital in the Libyan city of Benghazi to death. These are five Bulgarian nurses - Christiana Vulcheva (47 years old), Nasya Nenova (40), Valentina Siropulo (47), Valya Chervenyashka (51), Snezhana Dimitrova (54). And also the Palestinian doctor Ashraf al-Hajjaj (40 years old). All of them are accused of infecting more than 426 children with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 1999.56 children died, the rest are being treated in specialized clinics in Europe. The prosecution speaks of a “conspiracy” allegedly organized by Vulcheva. Packages of blood were found in the home of this Bulgarian contract nurse in Benghazi. According to one version, doctors replaced sterile blood for transfusion with untested blood, bought cheaply from local children, and resold high-quality blood for a profit.
However, the accused are supported by medical luminaries of the world, considering the HIV epidemic in Benghazi to be the result not of malice, but of unsanitary conditions in Libya. The first trial in this case took place in 2004. Then the Libyans acquitted the Bulgarian doctor Zdravko Georgiev, Vulcheva’s husband, and sentenced the rest to death. However , under pressure from the international community, on December 25, 2005, the Supreme Court of Libya sent the case for further investigation . The convicts claimed that the testimony was given under torture, and after an investigation, the authorities accused nine police officers of violations, but a trial held on June 7, 2005 acquitted them.
The current verdict can be appealed, and lawyer Othman al-Bizanti intends to take advantage of this. Under pressure from the international community, local authorities may also intervene in the matter: the Libyan Supreme National Council has the right to pardon sentenced doctors.
The execution period of the sentence has not been established. The announcement of the verdict in court caused sobs from the condemned and delight from the relatives of the infected children, who considered the execution a well-deserved punishment. The children's families are demanding compensation of $10 million for each injured child.
“Do not carry out death sentences and immediately release doctors,” Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Rene van der Linden called on the Libyan authorities. “The execution of innocent people who came to Libya to treat the sick is a blatant injustice.” The Foreign Ministry of Finland, which holds the presidency of the European Union, called for finding a “fair and humane solution to the situation.” Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin is “deeply disappointed” with the verdict, while Bulgarian parliamentarians called on the international community to put pressure on Libya for the immediate release of doctors. The Palestinian authorities personally appealed to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi to pardon his fellow doctor.
Previously, Tripoli offered Sofia to release the Bulgarians for compensation of $5.5 billion, drawing a parallel with Libya’s payment of compensation to the families of those killed in the explosion of an American plane over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988 (the Libyan special services were convicted of that terrorist attack). But Bulgaria categorically rejected this option, since it would mean an indirect admission of guilt of its citizens.
The Bulgarian Embassy in Moscow told Vremya Novostey yesterday that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “cannot agree with the court decision, which neglects absolutely clear facts, also confirmed by the latest research by leading world-renowned experts, who deny any connection between the work of Bulgarian doctors and the AIDS epidemic in a children’s hospital Benghazi."