The slander charges brought up against the Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death for intentional HIV infection in Libya will be used to affect public opinion on the upcoming proceedings in the HIV trial.

Libya’s Supreme Court will examine the appeal against the death sentences of the nurses in the near future, lawyer Hari Haralampiev said.

On February 25, Tripoli’s Penal Court held a sitting in the defamation trial. Charges are based on the claims of the nurses that Libyan officers tortured them into confessing guilt. At the court sitting the nurses once again said that they were tortured.

A court decision that the nurses were really tortured will have paramount importance for the outcome of the appeal, Haralampiev told Bulgarian National Radio.

“For the first time I saw in front of me decisive women, who know they have nothing to lose,” Haralampiev said. He commented on the February 25 court sitting and the manner in which the nurses replied to the accusations.

Nurse Valya Chervenyashka said that she will fight to get the right to speak and describe what the five had gone through.

Court adjourned the defamation trial. The next sitting is scheduled for March 11.