E.U. Commission President José Manuel Barroso remains hopeful that the medics will receive clemency. "We regret that these decisions have been made, but I also want to express my confidence that a solution will be found," Barroso told the European Parliament . Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov called for a quick solution. He said the verdict came as no surprise, and expressed his hope for a swift final solution. The case will now move to the Supreme Judiciary Council which will hear the case on Monday, according to Libya's Foreign Minister, Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam. The Council is headed by the Justice Minister of Libya. Late Tuesday, the Gaddafi Foundation, a non-profit run by the son of Libya's de facto leader Muammar al-Gaddafi , said a deal had been reached to free the health workers. The head of the Association for the Families of the HIV-Infected Children, Idriss Lagha, also said announced that a deal could be reached soon. After the verdict today, Salah Abdessalem, a spokesman for the Gadhafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, reconfirmed to the Associated Press that a settlement to free the detainees still exists, which he said was acceptable to all parties and would end the crisis, without giving further details. The convicted nurses and medical intern began working in the El-Fath Children's Hospital in Benghazi in 1998, and were arrested and jailed one year later when over 400 children were found to be infected with HIV -over 50 have died since. They were sentenced to death in 2004, and again after a retrial last December which came after an international outcry about the affair. A scientific report by professors Luc Montagnier (one of the original discoverers of the virus causing AIDS) and Vittorio Colizzi used as evidence for the defence in the case said that the virus causing AIDS was widely spread in the hospital before the health workers even arrived, and that the infections were due to negligence and poor hygiene procedures in the Benghazi hospital. The prosecution introduced a report of Libyan scientists saying that this was not the case. The detainees have said that they have been tortured to make confessions.
E.U. Commission President remains hopeful that the medics will receive clemency. "We regret that these decisions have been made, but I also want to express my confidence that a solution will be found," Barroso told the . called for a quick solution. He said the verdict came as no surprise, and expressed his hope for a swift final solution. The case will now move to the Supreme Judiciary Council which will hear the case on Monday, according to Libya's Foreign Minister, Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam. The Council is headed by the Justice Minister of Libya. Late Tuesday, the Gaddafi Foundation, a non-profit run by the son of Libya's de facto leader , said a deal had been reached to free the health workers. The head of the Association for the Families of the HIV-Infected Children, Idriss Lagha, also said announced that a deal could be reached soon. After the verdict today, Salah Abdessalem, a spokesman for the Gadhafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, reconfirmed to the that a settlement to free the detainees still exists, which he said was acceptable to all parties and would end the crisis, without giving further details. The convicted nurses and medical intern began working in the El-Fath Children's Hospital in in 1998, and were arrested and jailed one year later when over 400 children were found to be infected with HIV -over 50 have died since. They were sentenced to death in 2004, and again after a retrial last December which came after an international outcry about the affair. A scientific report by professors (one of the original discoverers of the virus causing AIDS) and used as evidence for the defence in the case said that the virus causing AIDS was widely spread in the hospital before the health workers even arrived, and that the infections were due to negligence and poor hygiene procedures in the Benghazi hospital. The prosecution introduced a report of Libyan scientists saying that this was not the case. The detainees have said that they have been tortured to make confessions.
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José Manuel Barroso
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European Parliament
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Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov
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Muammar al-Gaddafi
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Associated Press
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Benghazi
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Luc Montagnier
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Vittorio Colizzi