The lawyers of the five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death for intentional HIV infection in Libya have filed their sentence appeal within the needed time period.

Lawyer Osman Bizanti said as quoted by Associated Press that the appeal was submitted the final possible day so that the defence team could examine all documents once again.

The nurses were sentenced to death on December 19 2006. Lawyers have one final chance to appeal the sentence before Libya's Supreme Court.

Bizanti said that the Supreme Court is expected to examine the appeal in May 2007.

Lawyer Hari Haralampiev said that the motion will prevent Libyan authorities from moving on to executing the death sentences and will take the trial to a higher court level.

The defence will base its appeal on the self-confessions of the nurses, which in their own words were produced through torture. Lawyers will also focus on the fact that the court in Tripoli refused to count as evidence reports of Western virologists, proving the innocence of the nurses.

Two outcomes were possible, Haralambiev said. Libya's Supreme Court can either confirm the death sentences or find the nurses innocent.