Verdict Wednesday in Libya AIDS trial: Kadhafi son

A verdict in the appeals trial of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death in Libya's high-profile AIDS case will be handed down Wednesday, Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi's son said in an interview published here.

He also appeared to suggest that the death penalty would be upheld, but that the sentences could be commuted if a compensation package is worked out between the Bulgarian government and the European Union.

"The Supreme Court will pronounce the sentence Wednesday and immediately after the verdict, we will begin to work...on a package (of measures) with a view to a solution," Saif Al-Islam told the Corriere della Sera.

In Tripoli, an official of the Kadhafi Foundation, headed by Islam, denied he had stated that a verdict would be announced on Wednesday and said remarks made by the Libyan leader's son to the Italian newspaper were mis-translated.

"Seif al-Islam told the newspaper that the (appeal) process will start on June 20 and did not say if a verdict will be announced," the official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

The Bulgarian foreign ministry said Friday that the appeal would begin on Wednesday but did not say when a verdict was expected.

Meanwhile, Othman al-Bizanti, a Libyan lawyer for the foreign medics, told AFP: "It's improbable that the court will hold more than three sessions before announcing its verdict."

The five nurses -- Kristiana Valcheva, Nasya Nenova, Valya Cherveniashka, Valentina Siropulo, and Snezhana Dimitrova -- and the Palestinian doctor, Ashraf al-Hadjudj, were sentenced to death by a Libyan court in May 2004. They had been found guilty of intentionally infecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood at a hospital in the northeastern city of Benghazi.

Al-Islam, whose foundation is for Libyan charities, suggested that the accused would avoid the death penalty by agreeing compensation with the families of the victims.

"The package has to satisfy the families of the Libyan victims, otherwise we will not be able to find a solution," the daily quoted him as saying.

"The first step is a compromise with the families in order that there can be a pardon, in such a way that the death sentence is not carried out," he added, suggesting that the court will confirm the death penalty.

In the event of a negotiated settlement, "the high council of judicial affairs can say 'now that there is a compromise with the families, the Bulgarian government and the European Union, we can commute the death sentence to a prison term'," he said.

He said any compensation would include medical assistance for the infected children, and EU financing of Libya's "national action plan against AIDS" and an eventual "partnership" between Brussels and Tripoli.