Several news sources are reporting that the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian Doctor convicted of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV have had their death sentences commuted to life in prison by Libya's highest court. The case, which has been moving through Libya's court and appeals system for more than eight years, has become the focus of intense international scrutiny, as many countries and international health organizations have questioned the strength of the evidence against the convicted medical workers.
The ruling today was hailed as a step in the right direction by Bulgaria, the EU, and the US, but there has been no final decision on whether the medical workers will be allowed to return to Bulgaria. The commutation of the sentences came as the families of the infected children agreed to a final settlement of the payment of $1 million US dollars for each child infected.
Something that has received somewhat less attention, however, is the apparent link between the trial of the six medical workers and the trial and conviction of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi, a former Libyan intelligence officer, in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2001 on a speech given by Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi suggesting that the CIA or Israeli intelligence service was behind the "experiment on the[] children" and promised the medical workers would face "an international trial, like the Lockerbie trial." And, according the Bulgaria's foreign minister, from 2001 to 2005 Kadafi repeatedly offered to exchange the six medical workers for Al Megrahi. In a somewhat surprising twist of events, last month the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission agreed to allow a reopening of the case against Al Megrahi, citing new evidence that has come to light since his conviction.
Conceding that there may be the makings of a conspiracy theory entwined in the facts just stated, both cases (the Lockerbie trial and that of the Bulgarian/Palestinian medical workers) serve as examples of just how intensely political cases against foreign nationals can become. The fairness of the trial and validity of the evidence against the accused have been strongly questioned in both cases. For these accused, it seems the line between the law and politics may be incredibly difficult to ascertain.
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