Unbelievable story. Here is an opportunity for Bush to use some our newfound influence with Khadafy, for some good...
Bulgarians sentenced to death in bizarre Libyan HIV
case
Juliette Terzieff
Sunday, June 6, 2004
Like the plot line of a cheesy Cold War spy novel, the lives of
five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor -- accused and
convicted in a diabolically farcical five-year trial of
intentionally infecting over 400 children with HIV as part of a
CIA and Israeli intelligence plot -- now depend on the whims of
Moammar Khadafy, Libya's viciously mercurial dictator with a
passion for fashion.
With the plot hitting its climactic point, politicians and diplomats
around the globe are vocalizing their ideas on how the story
should end.
On May 6, the six defendants were sentenced to death by firing
squad -- with a 60-day period to launch an appeal -- in a trial
observers say flew in the face of human rights in every respect.
Nine Libyan health workers also charged in the case were
acquitted the same day.
Residents in the Libyan town of Banghazi celebrated in the
streets with dance and song; in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia,
outrage and disbelief were channeled into candle light vigils and
prayer ceremonies.
"It's like your worst nightmare or a bad movie, only this is real,
and all you want to do is cry," said Sofia resident Diana Meneva,
who joined the medics' family members and hundreds of
concerned Bulgarians at a peaceful protest outside the parliament
building last month.
The medical professionals dreamed of better lives. For the
Bulgarians, hailing from a small Balkan nation where the average
monthly salary is a paltry $165, and the Palestinian coming
from an area where unemployment is estimated to be above 60
percent, the chance to work in Libya was a boon -- they would
earn a salary more than triple what they could get at home.
With visions of bright future prospects in their heads, the five
Bulgarian nurses (Kristiana Malinova Valcheva, Nasya Stojcheva
Nenova, Valentina Manolova Siropulo, Valya Georgieva
Chervenyashka and Snezhanka Ivanova Dimitrova) and
Palestinian Dr. Ashraf Ahmad Jum'a arrived in Banghazi in 1998
to work at the al-Fateh Children's Hospital.
Less than a year later, in February 1999, the medics were
arrested without warning along with dozens of foreign medical
workers after 393 children at al-Fateh were found to have HIV,
the virus that causes AIDS. All but the six now facing death were
released.
Nurse Valcheva's husband, Dr. Zdravko Georgiev, employed in
another Libyan city by a South Korean company, raced to be by
his wife's side, only to find himself arrested and charged as a
co-conspirator. After more than four years in jail, Georgiev was
released for "time served" on May 6 -- the day his wife
received the death sentence.
"Libya has severe deficiencies in their medical system including
a lack of qualified personnel and for years has recruited
foreigners," said Bulgarian Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs
Lubomir Ivanov. "It appears these medics were selected for trial
in the belief that Bulgaria is a small country incapable of
defending its citizens."
Investigations into the case by Amnesty International found that
in the first nine months of their incarceration, the medics were
allowed access to embassy representatives only three times.
"Not all of the defendants were present at the first two
meetings. For example, Nasya Stojcheva Nenova and Valya
Georgieva Chervenyashka were not brought to the meeting on 25
February 1999, apparently because they exhibited scars of
torture which they had undergone," said a 2004 Amnesty
International report. "The Bulgarian defendants told Amnesty
International delegates that those torturing them instructed them
not to mention their treatment to their diplomatic
representatives."
The defendants were tortured daily for the first three months of
their captivity in efforts to elicit confessions -- torture that
included electric shocks, being threatened by barking dogs,
falaqa (beatings on the sole of the feet), suspension above the
ground by their arms for hours on end, and in the case of two
nurses, rape.
Interrogators had to do three takes of the video confession of the
Palestinian doctor Jum'a, with beatings in between and after.
When called upon by the public prosecutor to repeat his
confession in person -- interrogators beat him again in the
offices of the legal representative.
The medics gained access to a Libyan lawyer for the first time in
February 2000, after their trial had already opened before the
Peoples' Libyan Court.
Khadafy alleged that the medics were part of a CIA-Mossad plot
to test out the effects of using HIV/AIDS as a weapon to destroy
other countries.
Two years later, after numerous delays, their case was shifted
to the Criminal Prosecution Service, where the foreigners
launched complaints of torture before the new prosecutors.
After examinations by a Libyan doctor, nine Libyan security
personnel were brought up on charges and set to be tried
alongside the medics.
"The court subsequently claimed it did not have jurisdiction to
pass judgment on the torture allegations, yet they did have
competency to try a case the basis for which was the
confessions allegedly taken under that same torture? There is a
complete lack of logic there," argued the Bulgarian deputy
minister, Ivanov.
In another critical blow to the defense, the prosecutor instructed
the judges' panel to ignore the September 2003 testimony of a
French doctor, Luc Montagnier, co-discoverer of HIV. Montagnier
visited al-Fateh hospital and co- authored an exhaustive report
with Italian AIDS researcher Vittorio Colizzi on the cause of the
infections, which according to the report began in 1997 -- a full
year before any of the accused arrived in Libya.
Their conclusion? The infections were an inevitable outcome of
inadequate equipment, unskilled staff and the reuse of
unsterilized needles.
"This tragedy is probably due to negligence," Montagnier
testified. "This can happen not only in this hospital, but in many
others, particularly pediatric hospitals, because children are
more vulnerable to infection, even by very small quantities of
blood."
More than two dozen of the children have since contracted AIDS
and died.
For years Khadafy enjoyed taunting the West and reveled in its
impotent scorn, but the court's decision comes at a time when
the North African leader is on a extensive public relations
campaign to change his international image.
In September, Bulgaria and Great Britain led a successful
campaign at the United Nations Security Council to remove
sanctions against Libya -- which currently holds stewardship of
the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
In December, Libya announced its desire to dismantle its weapons
of mass destruction program and has since turned over
planeloads of equipment to the United States. Khadafy also agreed
to pay compensation to victims of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing
and the 1989 bombing of a French airliner of the Niger desert,
both carried out by Libyan agents.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and White House spokesman
Richard Boucher have joined a chorus of European politicians
urging Libya to review the trial carefully and answer charges of
human rights abuse in the case.
Libya has suggested that the Americans look into their own
human rights record in light of events at the Abu Graib prison in
Iraq before instructing others on how to behave.
Yet despite the acrimonious exchanges, Bulgarian officials --
who have launched an appeal against the death sentences in the
Libyan courts and called for help from other democratic nations
-- believe Khadafy has yet to issue his final word on the subject.
"It's always difficult to predict what comes next in a country
like Libya, " says Ivanov. "Pressure needs to be brought to bear
because Khadafy is certainly trying to improve his image -- but
this is sickening, it's playing with the lives of six innocent
people." |
