EDHS Contemporary World Affairs

Libya on Tuesday commuted the death sentences of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of having intentionally infected hundreds of Libyan children with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS.

Libya changed the medical workers sentences to life in prison after the families of the infected children each received $1 million. The decision could pave the way for a deal in which the Libyan government transfers the medical workers to Bulgaria, where it is probable they would be released. Bulgaria has consistently said the medical workers are not guilty.

The Bulgarian state institutions have already started the procedural steps needed for the transfer, said Dimiter Tzantcev, a Foreign Ministry spokesman. The formal request will be made tomorrow.

Libyas foreign minister, Abdel-Rahman Shalqam, told The Associated Press that his government would most likely grant the request, though he did not say when.

Issuing this decision automatically closes the legal case against them, Mr. Shalqam said. There is a legal cooperation agreement between Libya and Bulgaria, and we dont mind that the Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor benefit from it.

The decision by the Libyan High Judicial Council to commute the sentences was reported Tuesday by the countrys official news agency, JANA.

The convoluted case, in which the medical workers were twice ordered to die before a firing squad, began in February 1998 when the nurses arrived to take jobs at Al Fateh Childrens Hospital in Benghazi, Libyas second largest city. By August that year, children at the hospital began testing positive for H.I.V. Health authorities soon realized they had a major problem. Dozens of Bulgarian medical workers were arrested and a videotaped search of the apartment of one purported to turn up vials of H.I.V.-tainted blood. At least two of the nurses eventually confessed but said later that they had been forced to do so under torture.

The Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, subsequently charged that the nurses had acted on the orders of the Central Intelligence Agency and Israels intelligence agency, the Mossad.

A Benghazi court eventually convicted the five nurses and doctor of deliberately injecting more than 400 children with the virus, though international AIDS experts including Luc Montagnier, the French virologist and a co-discoverer of H.I.V. concluded that the virus predated the nurses arrival and was probably spread by contaminated needles. More than 50 of the children have died.

The medical workers were sentenced to death in May 2004, but the Libyan Supreme Court ordered a retrial after an international uproar. That trial, too, ended with death sentences. Last week, the Supreme Court upheld the decision, leaving the High Council as the medical workers seemingly last hope.

Beyond the legal maneuverings, though, the case has long been regarded as one that centered on money for the affected families. Colonel Qaddafis son, Seif al-Islam, who has acted as point man on many of the countrys most difficult international negotiations, said repeatedly over the years that the medical workers would never be executed.

Under Libyas legal code, which follows Islamic law, the families had the right to grant clemency in return for blood money. They demanded $10 million for each child infected, the same amount that Libya agreed to pay each of the families of the 270 people killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. Libya has accepted responsibility for the bombing.

Negotiations over the payments have dragged on for years, and the international community has spent millions of dollars per child for medical equipment and medical care. Finally, last week, each family received $1 million in a deal worked out between them and the younger Mr. Qaddafis charitable foundation. They then dropped their demands that the medical workers die.

It is not clear where the money paid to the families came from. The younger Mr. Qaddafi told Frances Le Figaro newspaper that Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia and the Czech Republic have forgiven some of Libyas cold-war-era debts, freeing the cash that was paid as compensation. But those governments have denied the claim, news agencies have reported.

There is no decision to alleviate debt, said Mr. Tzantcev. It has not been discussed.

Bulgaria has staunchly refused to pay compensation, arguing that it would be an admission that the medical workers were guilty.

But the country has committed to participate in an international fund set up in late 2005 to pay for the childrens medical care and to enhance Libyas abilities to fight H.I.V. Bulgaria has put no cash into the fund, Mr. Tzantcev said. He said all of the countrys contributions have in medical equipment and training.

The Bulgarian government hopes the medical workers will be transferred to its custody soon under a 1984 bilateral agreement with Libya that provides for citizens of one country convicted of crimes in the other to serve their sentences at home.

In June, Bulgaria granted the Palestinian doctor citizenship to make him eligible for transfer under the agreement. For us, Mr. Tzantcev said, the case will finally be closed when the Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor step onto Bulgarian soil.