BMJ  2004;328:1153 (15 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7449.1153-a

News

Six health workers sentenced to death in Libya

Prague

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Six foreign health workers have been sentenced to death in Libya for allegedly deliberately infecting almost 400 Libyan children with HIV.

A male Palestinian doctor and five female nurses from Bulgaria were sentenced to death by firing squad.

Charges were brought against them after 393 children became infected with HIV at the Al Fateh Children's Hospital in Benghazi. The health workers were found guilty of causing the death of 40 children by deliberately injecting the patients with blood contaminated with HIV.

The workers have been held in prison for five years since being arrested in 1999. A Bulgarian doctor, Zdravko Georgiev, was sentenced to four years in prison but was to be released as he had already served this time, and nine Libyan former hospital managers and staff who had also been charged in the case were acquitted.

During the trial, Professor Luc Montagnier, who discovered HIV, and Professor Vittorio . . . [Full text of this article]

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Rapid Responses:

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Blood transfusion, HIV infection in children and death sentences in Libya!

Dr. Naseem A. Qureshi
bmj.com, 14 May 2004 [Full text]

Is this fair and just penalty for breach of professional duty of care?

m lim
bmj.com, 25 May 2004 [Full text]

Action from BMJ readers ?

Valeria Frighi
bmj.com, 5 Jun 2004 [Full text]