Foreign medics seek pardon in Libya AIDS case

Six foreign medics sentenced to death in Libya for infecting hundreds of children with AIDS have sought "pardon and mercy" from the country's top judicial body, an official said Sunday.

The request was signed on Saturday by the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor in the presence of ambassadors of unspecified European countries, added the Libyan source who requested anonymity.

Their lawyer, Osman al-Bizanti, confirmed the signing of another document that rules out any further action against the Libyan state over the eight years that his clients have spent in prison over the case.

The two documents, plus another which contains details of a compensation deal clinched with the families of the infected children, are to be considered on Monday by the Libya's Supreme Judicial Council.

The council, which is directly answerable to the Libyan justice minister, has the power to alter, or even revoke, the Supreme Court decision last week to sentence the six medics to death.

The families of the Libyan children contaminated by the AIDS on Sunday confirmed they had accepted compensation of about one million dollars for each of the infected children.

Spokesman for the families Idriss Lagha specified however that "an agreement will not be signed until the money has been paid to the families."

The medics have been on death row since 2004 after being convicted of deliberately infecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood. Fifty-six have since died.

On Thursday the International AIDS Society expressed "shock and dismay" at the confirmation of the death penalty for the six.

The Geneva-based body, which represents more than 11,000 health workers in upwards of 170 countries, said evidence suggested the children had become infected because of insanitary conditions at the hospital in Libya's second city of Benghazi before the medics arrived there.