The Scotsman

UNITED NATIONS: UN Bid to Help Death Sentence Health Workers

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today said he plans to contact the Libyan government at a high level about death sentences for 5 Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of infecting hundreds of Libyan children with Aids.

"I am going to talk to them about the situation of the nurses and the people in this situation and to see what can be done to help them," he said.

Western governments and human rights groups have denounced last Thursday's verdicts and sentences, saying they were based on false confessions obtained through torture and designed to draw attention away from unsanitary practices at Libyan hospitals.

They demanded freedom for the sentenced foreigners.

United States State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the verdict and sentences were unacceptable.

Initially, Libya claimed the infections were part of a conspiracy by the CIA and Israeli intelligence, but it later backed away from those allegations.

Prosecutors accused the Bulgarians of intentionally infecting more than 400 children with HIV-contaminated blood as part of an experiment to find a cure for Aids. 23 of the infected children have reportedly died.

Under Libyan law, death sentences generate an automatic appeal, and European leaders have suggested they were exerting pressure on the government Colonel Gaddafi to reverse the verdicts.

Annan was asked whether he had made any entreaties to the Libyan government about the seven people sentenced to death.

"I have indicated that I will be in touch with the Libyan authorities on this issue, and I intend to be in touch at a high level on this issue," he said.