Benghazi, Libya
Libyan court last week condemned five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death by firing squad for purposely infecting Libyan children with HIV. In 1999, more than 400 children came down with the AIDS virus at a hospital where the six worked. World health experts blamed the epidemic on the atrocious hygiene in Libyan hospitals, but Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddafi said the CIA and Mossad had ordered the Bulgarians to conduct HIV experiments on Libyan children. Twenty-three Bulgarians were originally arrested in February 1999 in connection with the infections; most were released. The Bulgarian government called this week’s verdicts “unfair and absurd,” and said President Georgi Parvanov would travel to Tripoli to make a personal appeal to Qaddafi.
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