/ 29 January 2007

Bulgarian nurses won’t be executed, says Gadaffi’s son

The son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi said five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor condemned to death by a Libyan court had received unjust verdicts and that they would not be executed, a Bulgarian newspaper reported on Monday.

”We don’t want to see executions in Libya, of Libyans or Bulgarians. We don’t want any executions. Our legislation still envisages the death penalty but the executions have been suspended,” the newspaper 24 Chassa quoted Seif al Islam as saying.

Asked whether he could provide any guarantees that they will not be executed, Seif al Islam said: ”I can tell you, we will not execute anyone,” according to the newspaper.

A Libyan court last month convicted the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor of intentionally infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV, despite scientific evidence that the youngsters had the virus before the medical workers arrived in Libya. It sentenced all the medical personnel to death.

Seif al Islam, who is president of the Gadaffi International Foundation for Charity Associations, has become an influential figure in Gadaffi’s regime and an unofficial ambassador-at-large for it.

Asked to comment on the verdicts, Seif al Islam was quoted as saying that ”the medics received unjust sentences”.

”The court that tried the medics was absolutely independent, but the verdicts were unjust,” he was quoted as saying, and added that ”the case went the wrong way from the very beginning”.

”The original files were manipulated and there were many mistakes, but it was the fault of the police officers and investigators who handled the case at the initial stage.”

Libya’s prosecution of the nurses has become a point of contention in the country’s efforts to rebuild ties with the West.

Europe and the United States have called for the medical workers’ release. The six — who have been in Libyan custody for almost eight years — plan to appeal their convictions and sentences before Libya’s Supreme Court.

Asked about the possible solution of the case, Seif al Islam said that the demands of the families of the infected children have to be taken into account.

”The governments of Libya and Bulgaria, and the European Union, should take part in this process,” he said.

Relatives of the victims have staged numerous demonstrations, demanding that the medics be punished.

The retrial last month had been ordered after US, European and Libyan negotiators agreed to set up a fund to help the infected children’s families.

Bulgaria has rejected the idea of paying compensation to the families, or writing off some of Libya’s debt, saying such a move would be seen as an admission of the nurses’ guilt. — Sapa-AP