Post by Bozur on Feb 17, 2005 16:48:01 GMT -5
Bulgaria urges EU nations to aid nurses sentenced to death in Libya
SOFIA (AFP) - Bulgarian Parliament Speaker Ognian Guerdjikova called yesterday on European Union legislatures to help save five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya in a scandal over AIDS-tainted blood.
In a letter to his fellow speakers at EU state parliaments, Guerdjikova said he was “deeply concerned about a recent declaration by the People’s General Conference (parliament) in Libya” calling for the sentences to be carried out.
Guerdjikova also called on the parliaments to “support efforts to provide immediate aid to Libyan children contaminated with AIDS and their families, as well as to help find a solution to the particularly serious problem of the spread of AIDS in Africa.” In Tripoli, Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem said last week that calls from MPs for the maximum penalty to be imposed against those responsible for an AIDS epidemic would not affect the case of five Bulgarian nurses on death row.
“The wishes of the Libyan people will not affect the judges’ deliberations or their independence,” Ghanem said.
The Parliament had earlier this month called for the toughest possible sentence to be imposed on those responsible for the health scandal in which nearly 400 children were infected with the AIDS virus at a hospital in the northeastern city of Benghazi.
MPs made no specific reference to the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who were sentenced to death for their alleged role in the case in May last year.
All of the defendants have insisted on their innocence throughout their six years of detention.
www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=52154
SOFIA (AFP) - Bulgarian Parliament Speaker Ognian Guerdjikova called yesterday on European Union legislatures to help save five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya in a scandal over AIDS-tainted blood.
In a letter to his fellow speakers at EU state parliaments, Guerdjikova said he was “deeply concerned about a recent declaration by the People’s General Conference (parliament) in Libya” calling for the sentences to be carried out.
Guerdjikova also called on the parliaments to “support efforts to provide immediate aid to Libyan children contaminated with AIDS and their families, as well as to help find a solution to the particularly serious problem of the spread of AIDS in Africa.” In Tripoli, Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem said last week that calls from MPs for the maximum penalty to be imposed against those responsible for an AIDS epidemic would not affect the case of five Bulgarian nurses on death row.
“The wishes of the Libyan people will not affect the judges’ deliberations or their independence,” Ghanem said.
The Parliament had earlier this month called for the toughest possible sentence to be imposed on those responsible for the health scandal in which nearly 400 children were infected with the AIDS virus at a hospital in the northeastern city of Benghazi.
MPs made no specific reference to the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who were sentenced to death for their alleged role in the case in May last year.
All of the defendants have insisted on their innocence throughout their six years of detention.
www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/content.asp?aid=52154