Libya seen likely
to free health workers in AIDS case

On November 15 Libya's supreme court is set to rule on an appeal filed by five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death for deliberately infecting with HIV hundreds of hospitalized children. The six have maintained their innocence. This week the newspaper Asharq al-Awsat quoted Arab diplomatic sources as saying the six would be asked to pay compensation to a special fund and a charitable organization run by Saif al-Islam, the son of Libyan ruler Mu'ammar Gadhafi. Bulgaria has previously refused Libya's urging that it pay compensation to the children's families, saying this would amount to an admission of guilt. The new compromise is said to have been brokered by the United States and the European Union, both of which have condemned the death sentences. The European Commission and Bulgaria's foreign ministry declined to comment on the published report but reiterated that the medics should be freed. (Reuters)