LIBYA. BULGARIAN NURSES' LAWYER VOWS TO HAVE DEATH SENTENCES OVERTURNED

March 23, 2005: Trajan Markovski, the lawyer of five Bulgarian nurses facing the death penalty in Libya for allegedly giving children AIDS-tainted blood, vowed to have their sentences overturned even though Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi called them "murderers". "Despite all recent goings on, I insist that the sentences will be repealed," Markovski, said.
Earlier in the day, Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi said he would not pardon the Bulgarian nurses despite international appeals for their release.
"I swear by Allah that I will not release the Bulgarians," Gaddafi told an Arab League summit in Algiers.
"If Western officials come tell me to release them now, I won't do it. How can we free the murderers of children," he said, adding that he had personally intervened in the case.
Markovski said the statement was "political" and he hoped it would not influence a court decision.
But Bulgarian MPs said they feared that the Libyan court due to rule on the nurses' appeal would be affected by Gaddafi 's views.
"The court in Libya is not independent," parliamentary deputy spokesperson Assen Agov said.
"I hope that the court will base its decision only on proved evidence," said Yunal Lyutfi, a centre-right MP.
Last May, the five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death by a Libyan court for allegedly infecting more than 380 Libyan children with AIDS and causing the death of 46 others. All of the defendants, who had spent six years in detention, insisted they were innocent. (Sources: Agence France Presse, 23/03/2005)