Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of infecting Libyan children with HIV are to go on trial yet again in Tripoli next month. The six were sentenced to death by firing squad in May 2004, but the sentence was overturned. The medics say they were tortured into confessing and blame poor standards of hygiene in Libyan hospitals for the infection.
The medics were convicted despite a report by Professor Luc Montagnier, who first isolated the HIV virus, which showed that the infection had already begun before the medics started working at the hospital and continued to spread after they were arrested.
The medics have spent almost seven years in prison. The case against them was initially dismissed on lack of evidence, but prosecutors re-filed the charges. Libya has since sought damages from Bulgaria over the affair, in a parallel to Libya paying out damages to relatives of the victims of Pan-Am Flight 102.
UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw argues that because Libya and Britain have re-established diplomatic relations, we have actually "gained leverage" in human rights cases such as this one. Whether or not he is right remains to be seen.
It may seem strange to some that Britain and Libya are buddies again. Sure, a member of their diplomatic staff shot dead PC Yvonne Fletcher from their London embassy and Libyan intelligence was implicated in the terrorist bombing of Pan-Am Flight 102. But they've promised that they have abandoned their nuclear weapons programme. And, despite our woeful record with regard to intelligence on WMD programmes in the Middle East, we believe them so all is apparently forgiven.
Why are we buddies again? Because the lifting of the EU embargo (triggered by Libya renouncing WMD ambitions) allows EU companies to start selling certain goods to Libya again. Goods like "equipment for maintaining civil order". It is a pity that the Libyan government is not spending money on improving hospital sanitation instead.
