Qaddafi refuses to free Bulgarian nurses

Libya has imprisoned, and plans to execute, a group of Bulgarian nurses convicted of purposely infecting children with HIV:

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death last year after being found guilty of deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the deadly HIV virus that causes AIDS. The verdicts were based on confessions that the nurses — who remain jailed — say were extracted under torture.

“The 47 children are dead and the others are still on the death bed,” Qaddafi said. “The Bulgarian nurses and a physician said to be Palestinian injected ... children in the children’s hospital in Benghazi with the AIDS virus.”

The nurses, who have been imprisoned since 1999, say they are being used as scapegoats to prevent a backlash against medical authorities at the Benghazi hospital where they worked. Late last year, Tripoli suggested it would release the nurses in exchange for financial compensation. Bulgaria has refused, saying any payout would be an admission of guilt.

The AIDS epidemic killed at least 40 of the 426 infected children and caused outrage in Libya. AIDS experts have testified the epidemic began before the medics arrived at the hospital, possibly due to the unhygienic handling of needles and blood products.

Contaminated medical gear and rigged courts, more good reasons to avoid this particular little corner of the world.