Transfers of financial compensation to some of the families of the children allegedly infected with HIV by six Bulgarian medics, has already begun, the families said.

The families would, in return for the compensation, renounce their demands that the medics be executed, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

Idris Laga, head of the association of parents of infected children, said that the families had received cheques on the night of July 16 2007 and had started cashing them the following day.

Each family was to receive $1 million, he said.

Payment of compensation could lead to commutation or even repeal of the medics’ sentences, AFP said. Libya’s supreme judicial council was expected to decide on their fate on July 17.