New scientific evidence established the innocence of the Bulgarian nurses charged with intentional HIV infection in Libya, a report of French TV FR2 aired during the evening news bulletin said.

DNA testing described in a report of Nature magazine proved the infection happened before the Bulgarians started working in Libya’s Benghazi. More than 400 Libyan children were infected in the Benghazi hospital.

FR2 also reported that the Bulgarians have been in prison for more than seven years and had already once been sentenced to death.

New evidence published in Nature could have decisive influence over the outcome of the trial, the report said.

In an interview lawyer Osman Bizanti, one of the defenders of the Bulgarians, said that judges already once failed counting as evidence the analysis of well-known Western virologists.

Teams from Oxford and Rome worked on the second report. Mutations of the virus enabled virologists determine the time, when infection occured. Analysis showed that the infection occurred in the mid 1990s.

A final verdict is expected on December 19. Court could either confirm the previous death sentences or come up with a new sentence.