Tripoli Six Sentenced To Death
A Libyan court has sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death for "knowingly infecting 426 children with AIDS. The problem? There is absolutely no evidence they were responsible. Initially found guilty and sentenced to death in 2004 the supreme court quashed the verdict and ordered a retrial. Surprise, surprise they got the same result.
An article in Nature demonstrated that the strain of HIV involved was prevalent in the area, and that the outbreak was probably began before the accused medics arrived at the hospital. This appears to have come too late to help the case. Confessions under torture appear to have been made, though the police officers involved have been acquitted. Many of the infected children also had Hepatitis B and/or C, indicating that poor hygiene was a far more likely cause that deliberate infection. Witness testimony was ignored (including statements by the guy who discovered HIV).
The president of an organisation representing the victims made a statement claiming that the children had been infected with a "genetically engineered" virus under the supervision of Western intelligence agencies.
The case has been appealed against and may go to the Libyan Supreme Court.
Watch This Space as they say.