June 29
LIBYA/BULGARIA:
Top International Experts Urge Gadhafi to Commute Death Sentences of
Medics, Release Them
32 leading international AIDS experts from 10 countries urged Tuesday
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to commute death sentences his country has
handed to five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor on charges of
intentionally infecting people.
"As leading virologists and other scientists and physicians, we join our
health professional colleagues internationally in calling on you urgently
to commute the death sentences imposed by the Benghazi Criminal Court in
Libya on five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian physician," the experts
said in a letter to Gadhafi that was e-mailed to the BNN. "We also
respectfully ask your government to review the procedures that have led to
the targeting of these foreign health workers in this affair."
"Accordingly, we urge the Libyan authorities to dismiss the case, and to
release to their home countries the imprisoned medical personnel who were
invited to your country to help treat the sick," the letter said.
A court in Libya's coastal city of Benghazi on last May 6 convicted the
medics of deliberately infecting more than 400 children with HIV while
working in al-Fateh Children's Hospital and sentenced them to a firing
squad. The medics are appealing the verdict at Libya's Supreme Court in
Tripoli. It hasn't scheduled a hearing of their case yet.
The medics have said Libyan police submitted them to severe tortures
during the preliminary investigation to extort from them false confessions
of guilt. They were arrested in Feb. 1999.
The authors of the letter, whose full text the BNN is running separately,
included French doctor Luc Montagnier co-founder of the HIV virus, Italian
virologist Vittorio Collizzi, U.S. doctor Robert C. Gallo, Director of the
Institute of Human Virology and Division of Basic Science at the
University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute Baltimore.
The Benghazi court has rejected as "controversial and unfounded" a report
by Montagnier and Collizzi about the case and credited a report by 5
Libyan doctors, who confirmed the indictment.
"We believe the Benghazi Criminal Court has disregarded the explicit
findings of these prominent physicians and has proceeded without a firm
grasp of the scientific realities," the letter said.
It said that after several trips to Libya, which included a comprehensive
and thorough investigation of the al-Fateh Children's hospital, Montagnier
and Colizzi highlighted the unlikelihood of a deliberate injection by the
accused health workers and concluded that "all the genetic analyses
performed strongly indicate that the nosocomial infection in Benghazi
Children's Hospital has been caused by a single. . . subtype of A/G
HIV-1...by one. . . HIV infected child who was originally infected by his
mother through vertical transmission. This infection was already present
in the Benghazi Hospital in April 1997 [before the foreign health workers
arrived]. . . and was still operating in March 1999."
"Dr. Montagnier's assertion that the infections were caused by poor
medical conditions is consistent with the international community's
recognition that unsterile medical equipment can and does transmit HIV,"
the letter said. "Outbreaks with similar causes have been documented in
Egypt, Romania, and the Kalmyk Autonomous Region of Russia."
The signatories called the infection of the children "truly tragic."
"However, accusing health professionals of deliberately infecting the
children with HIV, contrary to the evidence, and sentencing these health
professionals to death, will not help protect other patients from a
similar fate," they said.
They urged Libyan authorities to accept international assistance and
determine the conditions at the hospital that caused the contagion and
ensure that such conditions no longer exist at that or any other Libyan
health facility.
(source: Bulgarian News Network)
ZAMBIA:
14 Coup Convicts Freed
14 treason convicts of the 1997 attempted coup, whose sentences were
commuted to 10 years, were yesterday finally released after serving 2/3 of
their jail terms. Zambia prison service assistant commissioner, Mukosa
Silwamba who confirmed this in Kabwe said the 14 were those whose death
penalties were commuted to 10 years imprisonment by President Mwanawasa.
Mr Silwamba said the 14 had their stay in prison shortened because they
had received one third of their sentences as remission.
President Mwanawasa early this year quashed the death sentences for all
the 1997 coup convicts and commuted them to prison terms ranging from 10
years to 20 years.
Those slapped with the longest jail terms were captain Stephen Lungu,
alias captain Solo, who was sentenced to 20 years, and Captain Jack Chiti
whose sentence was commuted to 15 years.
Capt Chiti's sentence, however, was last week commuted to a suspended
sentence because of his poor health.
On those released yesterday, Mr Silwamba said they had been freed because
they had served one-third of their sentences as prison remission.
Those released were Mabvuto Sakala, Cuthbert Halwindi, Coaster Mambwe,
Justin Bingwaya and Nelson Mbuzi.
Others were Elvis Chanda, Robbie Kalunga, Stephen Mubita, Frazier Jere and
Jonas Mbewe.
The rest were Christopher Mbewe, Lubaba Mulungushi, William Chansa and
Kelvin Kalenga.
(source: The Times of Zambia)
