Scientists denounce Libya for jailing health workers

Leading Aids scientists have denounced Libya for the wrongful imprisonment and torture of six foreign healthcare workers who are accused of deliberately infecting 400 Libyan children with HIV.

In a letter to the journal Science, the scientists claim that studies have proved beyond doubt that the Aids virus was present in the Al Fateh Benghazi Children's Hospital before the arrival of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor.

The letter is signed by Luc Montagnier, formerly of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, and Robert Gallo, formerly of the National Cancer Institute in Washington, who shared the credit for discovering HIV more than 20 years ago.

"The examination of hospital records showed that without question HIV-infected children were admitted to several wards of the Al Fateh Benghazi Children's Hospital in 1997 and early 1998...before the arrival in Libya of the six accused," the letter says.

Blood samples and a genetic analysis of the strain of HIV infecting the children back up their belief that the healthcare workers are innocent of deliberately spreading the virus, the scientists say.

"Convicting a small group of individuals of such an appalling crime as the deliberate infection of 400 innocent children requires a very high degree of proof," the scientists say.

"Yet the Libyan court chose to exclude expert testimony from independent scientists and to prevent access to crucial pieces of evidence to test for HIV contamination," they say.

- INDEPENDENT