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/ 25 October 2007
Disarray in both government and rebel ranks makes quick progress unlikely in Darfur peace talks billed by the United Nations as a ”moment of truth” to stop four-and-a-half years of violence in western Sudan. The best that can be hoped at the gathering in Libya, which begins on Saturday, is agreement to meet again.
Libya on Saturday denounced a decision by Bulgaria’s president to pardon six medics from life jail terms in an Aids case as a ”betrayal” and illegal. ”The detainees should have been detained upon their arrival [in Sofia], and not freed in this celebratory and illegal manner,” Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman Shalgham said.
The families of hundreds of Libyan children with HIV condemned Bulgaria’s ”recklessness” on Wednesday for its pardoning of six medical workers accused of infecting the children and called on Tripoli to cut ties with Sofia. In a statement, an association of the families demanded the medics be re-arrested by Interpol.
Libya lifted death sentences on Tuesday against five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of deliberately infecting children with HIV, paving the way for them to be freed after eight years in jail. The ruling, following a payment of -million each to 460 HIV victims’ families, fell short of freeing the medics.
Libya has paid funds to more than half the families of Libyan children with HIV under a deal that could free six foreign medics condemned to death for infecting them, a spokesperson for the families said on Tuesday. The financial settlement may bring to a close the eight-year legal case surrounding the medics and the children.
Efforts to end the four-year conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region by paving the way for new talks between Khartoum and fragmented rebel groups took a step forward at a meeting in Libya on Monday. International envoys and rebel groups, which failed to sign up to a May 2006 peace deal, will meet next month to fix a date and venue for the start of negotiations.
Libya’s top legal body meets on Monday for a session that could see it commute to prison terms the death sentences on six foreign medics convicted of infecting children with the virus that causes HIV/Aids. The meeting of the Supreme Judicial Council comes after families of the children were said to have accepted compensation totalling around -million.
The United Nations and African Union host a meeting in Tripoli on Sunday to evaluate the troubled peace process in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur, which is bedevilled by fragmented rebel groups and competing initiatives. The meeting brings together those countries and organisations trying to end the four-year conflict.
Libya’s Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld death sentences on five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor for deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV, a judge said. ”The court rejects the appeals of the defendants and confirms the death penalty,” judge Fathi Dhan told a five-minute hearing.
Libya’s Supreme Court will rule on Wednesday on an appeal by six foreign medics sentenced to death for infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the HIV virus following a report of a deal for their release. The highly politicised case of the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor has blocked Libya’s efforts to deepen links to the West.
Chad’s government and rebel leaders gathered in Tripoli on Friday for Libyan-brokered peace talks aimed at ending an insurgency against President Idriss Deby’s rule. A coalition of Chadian rebels have been fighting a hit-and-run guerrilla war for well over a year against Déby’s forces in eastern Chad.
Libya’s Supreme Court said on Wednesday it will issue its final verdict next month on six foreign medics on death row for allegedly infecting children with Aids, but an official involved in the case said an out-of-court settlement could be reached as early as this week.
Six foreign medics sentenced to death for infecting Libyan children with Aids launched their final appeal on Wednesday after more than eight years behind bars for a crime they say they did not commit. As the hearing opened, relatives of the victims rallied outside the Tripoli courtroom, holding up pictures of their infected children.
Libya’s Supreme Court on Wednesday begins hearing the final appeal of six foreign medics sentenced to death for infecting children with HIV, raising the prospect of a swift end to the eight-year crisis. Although the court is expected to uphold the death penalty, the verdict should pave the way for a compensation package to be agreed and for the sentences to be commuted.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi and visiting Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe want African leaders to agree next month to unite Africa under one government to help it solve its own problems, state media said on Thursday. The two men agreed in talks that the 53-nation African Union should be turned into an embryonic federal government.
Libya announced on Tuesday it will sign a -million exploration deal with British energy giant BP, which London says plans to return the North African country after a 33-year absence. ”We are going to sign with BP an oil-exploration and -prospecting accord … worth -million,” said the head of Libya’s National Oil Corporation.
A Libyan court acquitted five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian medic on Sunday of charges of slandering police officers by protesting that their confessions had been extracted under torture. The ruling came just hours after an organisation headed by a son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi said the whole saga may soon be resolved.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi joked with journalists and bounded up a flight of stairs to dispel rumours about his health after a report he was in a coma suffering a blood clot to the brain. The veteran leader appeared before journalists and television cameras late on Monday.
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/ 20 February 2007
Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir will hold talks with Darfur rebels in Libya on Tuesday to try to advance peace efforts in the western Sudanese region. The talks will also be attended by Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi, Eritrean President Isaias Afewerki and United Nations and African Union envoys.
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/ 29 December 2006
Western criticism of death sentences handed to five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor by a Libyan court shows a lack of respect for the Libyan people, Libya’s foreign ministry said late on Thursday. The medics were sentenced last week for deliberately infecting 426 children in the late 1990s with the virus that causes Aids.
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/ 19 December 2006
A Libyan court on Tuesday found five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor guilty of infecting hundreds of children with the HI-virus that causes Aids and sentenced them all to death. The verdict and sentences were announced by judge Mahmoud Haouissa.
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/ 19 December 2006
Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of spreading HIV/Aids among children in a Libyan hospital will on Tuesday know whether they will finally be freed or face a firing squad. Libyan defence lawyer Othman al-Bizanti said at the weekend his clients were awaiting Tuesday’s expected verdict in a Tripoli court ”with anguish”.
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/ 23 November 2006
Migration is an age-old fact of life that governments must accept if they want to manage the flow of job-seekers moving from Africa to Europe, Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi told an Africa-Europe conference on migration. ”Action against nature is like rowing against the stream, which leads to failure,” Gadaffi told African and European interior ministers.
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/ 21 November 2006
European and African nations struggling to stem an exodus of migrants from Africa gather in Libya on Wednesday to tackle a problem with the potential to hurt economies and stir communal tensions on both continents. The focus will be on identifying long-term solutions such as creating more jobs in Africa to curb its ”brain drain” and widening opportunities for legal migration.
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/ 20 November 2006
Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi accused the West on Sunday of trying to grab Sudan’s oil wealth with its plan to send United Nations troops to Darfur and urged Khartoum to reject them. The United Nations and the African Union have been pressing Sudan to accept a UN-led peacekeeping force in Darfur to halt three years of violence that has killed tens of thousands.
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/ 17 November 2006
Libya on Friday dismissed as unfounded a report that it had supplied Islamists in Somalia with arms, saying Tripoli had played a peace-broker role for years between the Somali government and its rivals. ”It is unfounded and absolutely untrue and incredible to name Libya in this subject,” said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hassouna Chaouch in statement.
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/ 10 November 2006
Saif al-Islam, a prominent son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi who made a rare public criticism of the country’s political system in August, is leaving to work overseas. Islam, in his early 30s, will work in an international economic institution, a source said.
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/ 5 September 2006
The retrial of six foreign medics accused of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the virus that causes Aids was adjourned to October on Tuesday after a defence lawyer failed to show up at court. ”The court held a very brief session and swiftly postponed the trial to October 12 because the lawyer of the Palestinian doctor was absent,” said lawyer Abdallah al Maghribi.
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/ 1 September 2006
Libyan leader Moammar Gadaffi, marked the 37th anniversary of the coup d’état that brought him to power on Thursday by urging his supporters to ”kill enemies” if they asked for political change. The hard-line comment, made in a speech on state television, runs counter to recent hopes of political reform in the North African country of five million.
The retrial of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the Aids virus resumed on Tuesday. All six defendants were present to hear what defence lawyer Thaman al-Bizanti said would be the testimony of a young girl who was among those infected.
Libya was on the verge of building a nuclear bomb before it decided in 2003 to abandon its programme to produce weapons of mass destruction, leader Moammar Gadaffi said, according to the country’s official news agency. ”Libya was on the point of building a nuclear bomb: that is no longer a secret,” Gadaffi was quoted on Monday as saying.
The Tripoli criminal court heard testimony from prosecution witnesses on Tuesday as the re-trial of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of infecting Libyan children with the Aids virus resumed and was then adjourned until July 25. The three witnesses, a father and two mothers, appeared with their infected children before Judge Mahmud al-Huweissa.