Libyan justice ministry imposed unprecedented restrictions for journalist attendance during the December 19 court sitting of the trial of the five Bulgarian nurses accused of deliberate HIV infection.

Libya would allow only three media representatives to be present at the court sitting, Darik Radio reported.

Bulgarian media said that this decision violated freedom of speech. They will boycott the sitting and will stay outside the court hall, if the authorities did not allow all journalists to enter.

Media representatives will stay close to the hall and will wait for any of the diplomats present to tell them what is happening.

The nurses and a Palestinian medic are accused of the intentional HIV infection of 426 children in a Hospital in the Libyan town of Benghazi in 1999. The court is expected to pronounce final verdicts on December 19 2006.

In the end of 2005 Libya's Supreme Court ordered a re-trial, overruling the previously issued death sentences. The court in Tripoli can either confirm the death sentences on December 19 2006 or come up with a new verdict.