
Bulgarian-Libyan 'war of words' can harm the efforts for the release of the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian medic sentenced to death for deliberate HIV infection in Libya.
Libya sentenced to death the medics on December 19 2006 after a re-trial. Bulgaria refused to accept the verdicts and requested international aid in pressuring Libya, Reuters news agency reported.
Bulgaria said that the trial was unfair and violated human rights. Libyan court refused counting as evidence scientific research establishing the innocence of the nurses, according Bulgarian authorities.
Libya said that the medics were part of a monstrous conspiracy, created by foreign intelligence, Reuters said. Local newspaper al Shams said that the “crime was more ugly than the crimes of (Adolf) Hitler.”
“The atmosphere of mutual recrimination would hamper commutation of the verdicts or the release of the medics,” Reuters said.
Algerian lawyer Saad Djebbar, expert on Libya, said that recrimination would “complicate and lengthen” the trial.
The medics will appeal the verdicts before Libya's Supreme Court. If court confirms the sentences, Libyan authorities can still overrule them.
Experts said that such move was likely only if Libya and Western countries manage to agree on a certain amount of compensation, collected in a fund to support the infected children.
“Prospects of such a deal ... [might] have been dimmed by recent rhetoric,” Reuters said.


















