EU outrage as Libya maintains Bulgarian nurses’ death sentence

Despite positive signals earlier this year, Libya’s Supreme Court has upheld the death sentences of the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor charged with having infected 400 children with AIDS.

Libya’s Supreme Court announced on 11 July 2007 that it is upholding the death sentences imposed on the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor charged with having deliberately infected more than 400 Libyan children with HIV/AIDS. 

The judgement comes despite international criticism of the trial and the announcements in January 2007 of Saif al-Islam Gaddaffi, the son of the Libyan leader, that his country would not carry out death sentences on the medical staff imprisoned since 1999. The Libyan Supreme Juridical Court is set to reconfirm or cancel the death-penalty decision on 16 July 2007. 

The announcement saw swift reactions from all EU institutions, all pleading with Libyan authorities to show clemency and to release the medical staff.  

“The destiny of the detainees touches us profoundly. This issue has become a European cause and we have the conviction that they deserve an immediate release. Our Union is based on common values and this Parliament watches over the protection of the human rights of European citizens all over the world,” said Parliament’s EPP-ED Group Chairman Joseph Daul. 

External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said she “firmly hopes” that clemency will be granted to the medical staff. “This should be done in the same spirit of mutual respect and humanitarian compassion which characterised the European response to the plight of the Benghazi children and their families,” she added.

“This decision is contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights and to the growing support beyond Europe for the abolition of capital punishment,” reminded the Council of Europe Secretary-General Terry Davis.

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