Aids-related deaths in South Africa: 2 113 571 at noon on Wednesday April 25 2007
Libyan Judge Salem Hamrouni last Sunday postponed a hearing in the slander trial brought against six medical workers sentenced to death for allegedly intentionally infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV.
The judge postponed the hearing to allow the medical workers’ lawyers time to prepare their defence in the case.
The five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death in 2006 in a retrial, after the Libyan Supreme Court overturned their conviction in 2005. They are accused of allegedly infecting 426 children through contaminated blood products at Al Fateh Children’s Hospital in Benghazi, Libya.
The health workers say they are innocent of the charges, claiming Libyan officials tortured them to obtain confessions.
A Libyan court in June 2005 acquitted nine police officers charged with torturing the medical workers and forcing them to confess.
In the current slander case, Libyan police officer Juma Mishri and a doctor, Abdulmajid Alshoul, are asking for $3,9-million each in compensation for the nurses’ torture accusations. A further three police officers have joined the slander case in compensation for distress caused by the torture allegations.
Source: www.kaisernetwork.org