A Libyan court sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death on Tuesday for spreading HIV in a Libyan hospital.

The defendants, who had worked at the Al-Fateh hospital in Libya's Benghazi, were accused of infecting more than 400 children with HIV, 52 of whom died at the hospital in the late 1990s.

The ruling amidst a deeply politicized background could tarnish oil producer Libya's hopes of better ties with the West, meaning hope remains for the six, analysts said.

The children's relatives broke down in tears and hailed the ruling that ended a seven-month retrial as a welcome act of defiance of the West.

"Justice has been done. We are happy," said Subhy Abdullah, whose daughter Mona, 7, died from AIDS contracted at the hospital in the town of Benghazi where the medics worked. "They should be executed quickly."

The six denied the charges and their defense lawyers argued that the children had been infected with HIV due to bad hygiene at the Benghazi hospital before their clients began working at the hospital.

In the wake of the verdict, their lawyers said an appeal would be lodged against their latest conviction.

Libyan Justice Minister Ali Omar Hassnaoui said the six may appeal to the Supreme Court and even to a superior body called the High Council of Justice.

"I am so sick I had to take pills today to go through this new ordeal," said Zorka Anachkova, mother of convicted nurse Christiana Valcheva. "We are all heart-broken. Can someone tell me what evil Christiana has ever done?"

The six were first found guilty in a 2004 trial and sentenced to death by firing squad.
But the Supreme Court quashed the ruling last year, citing unspecified failings in the case, and ordered a retrial.

Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi has reason to free the six eventually, analysts say, since the case has slowed Tripoli's rapprochement with the West after decades of isolation.

This moved up a gear when Libya abandoned its pursuit of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in 2003.

Bulgaria, the European Union which it joins next month and Amnesty International were among swift critics of the verdict. Washington had also earlier stated the medics' innocence.

The International Council of Nurses and World Medical Association said the ruling turned a blind eye to evidence including from Luc Montagnier, a French doctor who first detected the HIV virus that the children were infected well before the medics arrived in Benghazi in 1998.

Some Western scientists say negligence and poor hospital hygiene were to blame and that the six are scapegoats.

Analysts say the case is embroiled in power politics and a solution could take many more months, with Libya keeping the six as bargaining chips until talks yield a payout.

Tripoli has demanded €10 million (US$13.11 million) for each infected child's family. Bulgaria and its allies reject this, saying it would admit guilt, but have offered a fund for treatment at European hospitals for the children.

(China Daily December 20, 2006)