Libya seeks Western compassion over Aids case

Western countries criticising Libya for sentencing five Bulgarian nurses to death should show compassion for the 426 children they were convicted of infecting with the deadly HIV virus, Libya said yesterday.

Speaking at a symposium in the Lake Annecy resort town of Talloires in eastern France, Libyan Prime Minister Shokri Ghanem denied he was offering a deal to ease the death sentence by firing squad, which he said was handed down last month after a fair trial by a court in Benghazi.

"I'm not suggesting a deal, but a show of compassion so the families of the victims at least will feel that people are sharing with them the suffering inflicted on them," Mr Ghanem told journalists.

He declined to elaborate on how this could be done and what effect it could have.

Tripoli, which has been seeking closer ties to the West and has promised a quick solution to the issue, was under strong pressure from families of the children infected by blood contaminated with HIV, the virus that causes Aids, he said.

The European Union, the United States and the human rights group Amnesty International have joined Bulgaria in denouncing the sentence as unacceptable.

Libya has made substantial payments to the families of victims of the 1988 Lockerbie plane bombing and 1999 downing of a French plane over Niger as part of its recent drive to mend fences with Western countries.

The Bulgarian nurses dispute is a hurdle to Libya joining an EU economic partnership with Mediterranean region countries, which could bring Tripoli more trade and aid.

The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were detained in 1999 and charged with "uncontrollable murder aimed at destabilising the country and deliberately starting an epidemic".