Libya AIDS Trial Ordeal
A timeline of events in the case of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death in Libya on charges of infecting more than 400 children with the virus that causes AIDS.
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Libyan authorities detain 23 Bulgarian medics, nurses and doctors in the port city of Benghazi.
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Foreign Ministry informs Bulgaria that six Bulgarians — nurses Kristiana Valcheva, Nasya Nenova, Valentina Siropulo, Valya Chervenyashka and Snezhana Dimitrova, and Dr. Zdravko Georgiev — are under investigation in connection with an HIV epidemic in a Benghazi children's hospital. Palestinian doctor Ashraf al-Hazouz also is charged.
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Six Bulgarians are tried in Tripoli on charges of conspiracy against the Libyan state and deliberately infecting children with HIV. Prosecutors allege the defendants conspired with foreign intelligence agencies to cause an AIDS epidemic in Libya.
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Nenova and Valcheva, on whose confessions prosecutors based the charges, testify that their statements were extracted by torture. All six Bulgarians and the Palestinian plead not guilty.
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Defendants are acquitted of conspiracy, but court recommends a new trial to hear the charges of intentionally causing an epidemic.
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Court in Benghazi launches criminal trial against the six Bulgarians and the Palestinian on charges that they purposely infected some 400 Libyan children with HIV.
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Luc Montagnier — a French doctor who was a co-discoverer of HIV — testifies before the Benghazi court that the deadly virus was active in the hospital before the nurses began their contracts there in 1998.
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At its 19th hearing on the case, Benghazi court convicts the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor and sentences them to death by firing squad. Georgiev is acquitted on the infection charge and released.
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Libyan Supreme Court begins hearing Bulgarians' appeal.
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Supreme Court overturns the convictions on procedural irregularities and orders a retrial.
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Retrial begins. Prosecutors charge the six with intentionally infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV as part of an experiment to find a cure for AIDS.
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Court convicts the six and sentences them to death. Case is automatically appealed to the Supreme Court.
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The Gadhafi International Foundation for Charity Associations announces that a settlement between the families of the infected children and the six medical workers has been reached. It does not provide details.
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Supreme Court upholds the death sentences.
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The Supreme Judicial Council commutes the death sentences to life in prison after the families drop their demand for the prisoners to be executed.
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Bulgaria formally requests the medics be allowed to serve out their sentences in Bulgaria.
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European Union commissioner for foreign affairs, Benita Ferrero-Waldner and French first lady Cecilia Sarkozy arrive in Libya to negotiate the medics' release.
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The five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor are transferred to Bulgarian custody and return home. On their arrival, Bulgaria's president pardons all six.
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Credits:
CBS/AP
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