Doctors urge Libya to drop medics' death penalty

LONDON, Dec 9 (Reuters) Groups representing doctors and nurses worldwide urged the Libyan government to drop death sentences against six foreign medics accused of deliberately infecting more than 400 children with HIV.

The World Medical Association (WMA) and the International Council of Nurses (ICN) cited new scientific evidence in the journal Nature which found the HIV subtype started to infect patients in Libya before the medical workers arrived in 1998.

''It is clear evidence that the viruses were present prior to the arrival of the health professionals,'' a spokeswoman for the ICN said yesterday.

The retrial of the six health workers, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, ended in Tripoli last month. The prosecutor demanded the death penalty after five Libyan HIV/AIDS experts stood by their 61-page report written in 2003 that found the infections resulted from an intentional act.

In the new evidence, an international team of scientists analysed blood samples taken from some of the infected children to do a genetic analysis and determine when the outbreak started. Their results were reviewed by 10 independent experts.

A Libyan court is expected to deliver a verdict on December 19.

The six medical workers were initially sentenced to death in May 2004 on the same charges, but Libya's Supreme Court overturned the convictions and ordered the retrial.

The six have protested their innocence and said their confessions were made under torture. They arrived in Libya in March 1998 and have been in detention since 1999.

In addition to the Libyan government, the letter was also sent to the African Union, Amnesty International, the Council of Europe and Physicians for Human Rights.

The WMA represents more than eight million physicians worldwide.

The ICN is a federation of 129 national nurses associations representing 13 millions nurses.

REUTERS PB ND0924