TRIPOLI, LIBYA - Libya called on the Bulgarian government to
negotiate a payment to win amnesty for five Bulgarian medics and
a Palestinian sentenced to death for allegedly infecting 400
children with the AIDS virus.
Libya has come under intense pressure from European nations and
the United States to free the medics, amid accusations by
human-rights groups that the government concocted the charges to
cover up unsafe practices in its hospitals and clinics.
The six medical workers, rounded up in 1999, were sentenced to
death last year on charges they infected the children with
HIV-contaminated blood in an experiment to find a cure for AIDS.
Libya said about 50 of the infected children have died. But in
May, a court postponed a ruling in the defendants' appeal of
their convictions until November, raising hopes Libya might free
them.