AAAS Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program

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AAAS Human Rights Action Network

FACTS OF THE CASE:

On 6 May 2004, a Libyan court convicted five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor of deliberately infecting 400 children with HIV and causing the death of 40 children. They were sentenced to death by firing squad. The medical professionals have repeatedly claimed their innocence. Expert witnesses, including Dr. Luc Montagnier, the researcher who first isolated the HIV virus, testified that the children's infections were caused by poor hygiene at the hospital and not an international conspiracy or intentional actions on the part of the nurses and doctors as the prosecution claimed. Dr. Montagnier presented a report that demonstrated that the infection had already begun before the accused started working at the hospital, and continued to spread after they were arrested.

The five Bulgarian nurses, Kristiana Malinova Valcheva, Nasya Stojcheva Nenova, Valentina Manolova Siropulo, Valya Georgieva Chervenyashka and Snezhanka Ivanova Dimitrova, and the Palestinian doctor, Ashraf Ahmad Jum'a, were working at a hospital in Benghazi in 1998. They were arrested, along with several other medical professionals in 1999. The nine Libyans who worked at the same hospital were acquitted. The trial of the foreign medical workers had started and been postponed on several occasions. Last year, the court dismissed the case on the basis of insufficient evidence, but the prosecution resubmitted the charges.

The medical workers reported to Amnesty International researchers that they have been subject to daily torture by the police, including extensive use electric shocks; being suspended from a height by the arms; being blindfolded and threatened with being attacked by barking dogs; and beatings, including falaqa (beatings on the soles of the feet), and being beaten with electric cables. It is not clear if the medical workers were forced to "confess" to their crimes during the torture sessions.

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has strongly condemned the sentence. ICN President Christine Hancock stated, the "sentence is unjust, unwarranted and unacceptable. We implore the Libyan government to rectify this dreadful situation as quickly as possible. The health workers are being unfairly held responsible for a tragedy which has caused outrage in Libya." International outcry about the sentence has been echoed by Western diplomats who believe the prosecution arose because the authorities needed someone to blame for a public health tragedy in Libya.

(Sources of information for this case include: Amnesty International, International Council of Nurses and BBC World News.)

RELEVANT HUMAN RIGHTS STANDARDS

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

RECOMMENDED ACTION:

Please send faxes, letters, or emails:

• Expressing your extreme concern about the death sentences handed down to five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor for allegedly infecting children with the HIV virus in a Libyan hospital;
• Expressing your extreme concern with reports that the medical workers were subject to torture while in detention;
• Requesting that the medical professionals have access to their legal representation and that they are not subject to any further torture or ill-treatment; and
• Requesting that the defendants have full access to an appeal process to the Supreme Court.

APPEAL AND INQUIRY MESSAGES SHOULD BE SENT TO:

His Excellency Muhammad Misrati
Secretary of the People's Committee for Justice and General Security
Secretariat of the People's Committee for Justice and General Security
Tripoli
Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Libya
Salutation: Your Excellency

His Excellency Mu'ammar al-Gaddafi
Leader of the Revolution
Office of the Leader of the Revolution
Tripoli
Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Libya
Salutation: Your Excellency

Dr. Muhammad 'Abduallah al-Harari
Secretary for Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the General Peoples' Congress
P.O. Box 84662
Tripoli
Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
LIBYA
Salutation: Dr. Abduallah al-Harari

Please send copies of your appeals, and any responses you may receive, or direct any questions you may have to Victoria Baxter, AAAS Science and Human Rights Program, 1200 New York Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20005; tel. 202-326-6797; email vbaxter@aaas.org; or fax 202-289-4950.

The keys to effective appeals are to be courteous and respectful, accurate and precise, impartial in approach, and as specific as possible regarding the alleged violation and the international human rights standards and instruments that apply to the situation. Reference to your scientific organization and professional affiliation is always helpful.

To ensure that appeals are current and credible, please do not continue to write appeals on this case after 90 days from the date of the posting unless an update has been issued.

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