On May 6, 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 Committee on the Human Rights of Scientists sent several letters on behalf of the nurses and doctor. The captives were eventually freed in July 2007.

Lawyers for medical workers plea for independent scientific assessment

June 24, 2004

His Excellency Muhammad Misrati
Secretary of the People's Committee for Justice and General Security
Tripoli
Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya LIBYA

Your Excellency:

As the chair of the New York Academy of Sciences' Human Rights Committee I am writing to express our extreme concern about the death sentences handed down to 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, who were working at a hospital in Benghazi in 1998. They were arrested, along with several other medical professionals in 1999.

On 6 May 2004, a Libyan court convicted these six professionals of deliberately infecting 400 children with HIV and causing the deaths 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 international 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.

We are requesting that these medical professionals have access to their legal representation and that they are not subject to any further ill-treatment. We are also requesting that the defendants have full access to an appeal process to the Supreme Court.

I respectfully await your response to this matter of great importance to our committee and to the international scientific and medical community, including the Libyan medical community.

Founded in 1817, the New York Academy of Sciences is an independent, non-profit organization of more than 23,000 members serving science, technology, and society worldwide.

Sincerely,

Joseph L. Birman
Chairman, Committee on Human Rights of Scientists

Libyan court convicted five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor

October 5, 2006

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

Your Excellency:

I am writing to you as the chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the New York Academy of Sciences to commend the Libyan Supreme Court for overturning the death sentence of the five Bulgarian nurses Kristiana Malinova Valcheva, Nasya Stojcheva Nevona, Valentina Maolova Siropulo, Valya Georgieva Chervenyashka an Snezhanka Ivanova Dmitrova, and Palestinian doctor, Ashraf Ahmad Jum'a, who were convicted for deliberately infecting Libyan children with HIV in a hospital in Bengazi in 1998.

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 deliberate actions on the part of the nurses and doctors as the prosecution has claimed. Furthermore, experts assert that the infection already had emerged before the accused started working at the hospital, and continued to spread after they were arrested. However, in the current trial, which is expected to end in November, the testimony of those experts was thrown out by the court with the explanation that a team of Libyan doctors had reached the opposite conclusions. Because the expert testimony was thrown out by the court, it cannot be resubmitted in a subsequent trial.

We appeal to the court that you order an independent scientific assessment as to the cause of the HIV infection in children, so that the accused receive a fair and impartial trial.

I respectfully await your response to this matter of great importance to the international scientific community.

Founded in 1817, the New York Academy of Sciences is an independent, not-for-profit organization of nearly 26,000 members worldwide committed to advancing science, technology and society.

Sincerely,

Eugene Chudnovsky
Chairman, Committee on Human Rights of Scientists

A Libyan Court sentences the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death by firing squad for the second time.

January 4, 2007

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

Your Excellency:

I am writing to you as the Chairman of the Committee on Human Rights of Scientists of the New York Academy of Sciences, an independent, not-for-profit global membership organization of nearly 26,000 scientists and supporters worldwide, to express our extreme concern about the death sentence handed down in December 2006 to five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor for allegedly infecting children with the HIV virus in a Libyan Hospital.

Emmanuel Altit, a French lawyer in Paris who worked on the defense team, was quoted in the New York Times as saying that "the question of torture by electricity, proof that the nurses had been beaten, sexually harassed, kept for six months without contact, the question of fabricated evidence, none of this is discussed at all. The court refused to hear our experts."

The Committee calls on you to use your good office to ensure that the nurses and the doctor are granted a fair trial, in accordance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

I respectfully await your response to this matter of great importance to the international scientific community. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Eugene Chudnovsky
Chairman, Committee on Human Rights of Scientists