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Don't be a medic in a backward country. 
Science is for libruls. We feel that they are guilty, and so sentence them to death. 
A Libyan court has sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death for knowingly infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV.
The medics have been in detention since 1999, during which time 52 of the 426 infected children have died of Aids.
The nurses and doctor were sentenced to death in 2004, but the Supreme Court quashed the ruling after protests over the fairness of the trial.
The defendants say they are being made scapegoats for unhygienic hospitals.
Defence lawyers said the medics would appeal against the new verdict, expected to be the final appeal allowed under Libyan law.
The defence team told the court that the HIV virus was present in the hospital, in the town of Benghazi, before the nurses began working there in 1998.
Western nations had backed the medics' case, calling for their release.
Bulgarian officials quickly condemned the verdicts. Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin described the ruling as "deeply disappointing".
EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini expressed his shock at the verdict and urged the Libyan authorities to review the decision.
But the BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli, says it is highly unlikely that Libya's leadership will become involved in the case, at least in public.
Celebrations
Parents of the infected children said they were happy with the verdicts.
Some cried out in court as the verdicts were delivered, while others were gathered outside carrying banners.
"For the second time
, justice has spoken out with a ruling against those criminals and the punishment they deserve, because they violated their obligations and sold their consciences to the devil," Abdullah Maghrebi, the father of one infected child, told the BBC.
Tsvetanka Siropoula, the sister-in-law of one of the convicted nurses, told the Reuters news agency that the sentence of death was to be expected.
"I am sure they will be released, but it will take time. It is so sad that so many years have passed and they are still in jail."
Evidence contested
The medics protested their innocence throughout the case, retracting confessions that they said were obtained under torture.
Medical experts including the French co-discoverer of the HIV virus had testified on behalf of the medics.
And the World Medical Association and the International Council of Nurses said Tuesday's verdict ignored scientific evidence.
Oxford University in the UK said the verdict ran counter to findings by scientists from its Zoology Department.
A research team had concluded that "the subtype of HIV involved began infecting patients long before March 1998, the date the prosecution claims the crime began", a statement from the university said.
Libya has asked for 10m euros (£6.7m) compensation to be paid to each of the families of victims, suggesting the medics' death sentences could be commuted in return.
But Bulgaria has rejected the proposal, saying any payment would be seen as an admission of guilt.
The medics have been in detention since 1999, during which time 52 of the 426 infected children have died of Aids.
The nurses and doctor were sentenced to death in 2004, but the Supreme Court quashed the ruling after protests over the fairness of the trial.
The defendants say they are being made scapegoats for unhygienic hospitals.
Defence lawyers said the medics would appeal against the new verdict, expected to be the final appeal allowed under Libyan law.
The defence team told the court that the HIV virus was present in the hospital, in the town of Benghazi, before the nurses began working there in 1998.
Western nations had backed the medics' case, calling for their release.
Bulgarian officials quickly condemned the verdicts. Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin described the ruling as "deeply disappointing".
EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini expressed his shock at the verdict and urged the Libyan authorities to review the decision.
But the BBC's Rana Jawad in Tripoli, says it is highly unlikely that Libya's leadership will become involved in the case, at least in public.
Celebrations
Parents of the infected children said they were happy with the verdicts.
Some cried out in court as the verdicts were delivered, while others were gathered outside carrying banners.
"For the second time
, justice has spoken out with a ruling against those criminals and the punishment they deserve, because they violated their obligations and sold their consciences to the devil," Abdullah Maghrebi, the father of one infected child, told the BBC.Tsvetanka Siropoula, the sister-in-law of one of the convicted nurses, told the Reuters news agency that the sentence of death was to be expected.
"I am sure they will be released, but it will take time. It is so sad that so many years have passed and they are still in jail."
Evidence contested
The medics protested their innocence throughout the case, retracting confessions that they said were obtained under torture.
Medical experts including the French co-discoverer of the HIV virus had testified on behalf of the medics.
And the World Medical Association and the International Council of Nurses said Tuesday's verdict ignored scientific evidence.
Oxford University in the UK said the verdict ran counter to findings by scientists from its Zoology Department.
A research team had concluded that "the subtype of HIV involved began infecting patients long before March 1998, the date the prosecution claims the crime began", a statement from the university said.
Libya has asked for 10m euros (£6.7m) compensation to be paid to each of the families of victims, suggesting the medics' death sentences could be commuted in return.
But Bulgaria has rejected the proposal, saying any payment would be seen as an admission of guilt.
Speculation over Libya death sentences
Following the death sentences imposed by a Libyan court on five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, Professor George Joffe examines the likely consequences of the verdict.
Now that the five nurses and their Palestinian colleague have been sentenced to death for the second time for having allegedly deliberately infected over 400 children with HIV/Aids eight years ago in a Benghazi hospital, most commentators are wondering whether the Libyan authorities really mean to let them be executed.
After all, were that to happen, all the work done by the Gaddafi regime in rebuilding its bridges with the West would simply be wasted, as Western governments, spurred by public opinion, would isolate Libya once again or, worse still, impose new sanctions.
In fact, it is still too early to anticipate that, even though some of the victims' families hoped for a speedy imposition of the sentence yesterday.
Judicial process
All cases in Libya carrying a capital sentence have to go to the supreme court and, even if it decides not to interfere, administrative decision can intervene.
The High Judicial Council, presided over by the minister of justice, can grant pardons or commute sentences.
All that, however, is probably months away, for one of the oddities of this case is that the Libyan authorities have been insistent on respect for the country's legal system and will thus ensure that everything is done by the book - and that, in Libya, means that it will be very slow.
The sensitivity over the legal process is hardly surprising, in view of the stringent criticisms that have been voiced over it by foreign observers.
The Libyan courts have refused on two occasions to accept the evidence of internationally-recognised medical experts that HIV infection was present in the hospital even before the nurses arrived and that the children had already been infected by the time they did.
They have also ignored evidence of dreadful shortcomings in the medical system that ensured that the disease was passed on by poor hygienic practices.
Even Colonel Gaddafi himself ignored the advice of 114 Nobel Prize laureates to accept the evidence and end the trial.
The major reason for this - and one that will bear on the final outcome - is that the Gaddafi regime has always had a tense relationship with the populations of Cyrenaica and, in particular, Benghazi.
He has been anxious not to exacerbate the situation by ignoring the very genuine anger of the victims' families, even if it meant tolerating the charade of the trial, and that is going to apply to finding a solution now.
Compensation
In fact, the way forward has been known for a long time, as the Libyan foreign and justice ministers implied yesterday at a press conference.
The legal niceties will be attended to and then the High Judicial Council will intervene, either to pardon the accused or to commute their sentences and, perhaps, to allow them to serve them out in Bulgaria.
Then the hard bargaining starts.
The colonel will have to have something to assuage the families and the Libyans anticipate this will be in the form of compensation.
Figures of up to $10 million (£5m) per family have been mentioned - just the level of the compensation for the families of the Lockerbie disaster.
This, no doubt, is wildly ambitious and Libya's expectations will have to be downgraded, especially if the United States and the European Union are to be involved.
There is already a contact group of the US, Britain, Bulgaria and Libya discussing the issue and the Union has already put aside 500,000 euros (£335,000) to upgrade facilities in the hospital concerned.
Of course, the payments will not be called compensation but "humanitarian assistance" and Bulgaria adamantly refuses to be associated with them, for that would to admit guilt.
But that will be the way out and will be a small price to pay for access to Libya's oil - with new concessions to be announced today.
All that remains is to establish how much it is going to cost.
Following the death sentences imposed by a Libyan court on five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, Professor George Joffe examines the likely consequences of the verdict.
Now that the five nurses and their Palestinian colleague have been sentenced to death for the second time for having allegedly deliberately infected over 400 children with HIV/Aids eight years ago in a Benghazi hospital, most commentators are wondering whether the Libyan authorities really mean to let them be executed.
After all, were that to happen, all the work done by the Gaddafi regime in rebuilding its bridges with the West would simply be wasted, as Western governments, spurred by public opinion, would isolate Libya once again or, worse still, impose new sanctions.
In fact, it is still too early to anticipate that, even though some of the victims' families hoped for a speedy imposition of the sentence yesterday.
Judicial process
All cases in Libya carrying a capital sentence have to go to the supreme court and, even if it decides not to interfere, administrative decision can intervene.
The High Judicial Council, presided over by the minister of justice, can grant pardons or commute sentences.
All that, however, is probably months away, for one of the oddities of this case is that the Libyan authorities have been insistent on respect for the country's legal system and will thus ensure that everything is done by the book - and that, in Libya, means that it will be very slow.
The sensitivity over the legal process is hardly surprising, in view of the stringent criticisms that have been voiced over it by foreign observers.
The Libyan courts have refused on two occasions to accept the evidence of internationally-recognised medical experts that HIV infection was present in the hospital even before the nurses arrived and that the children had already been infected by the time they did.
They have also ignored evidence of dreadful shortcomings in the medical system that ensured that the disease was passed on by poor hygienic practices.
Even Colonel Gaddafi himself ignored the advice of 114 Nobel Prize laureates to accept the evidence and end the trial.
The major reason for this - and one that will bear on the final outcome - is that the Gaddafi regime has always had a tense relationship with the populations of Cyrenaica and, in particular, Benghazi.
He has been anxious not to exacerbate the situation by ignoring the very genuine anger of the victims' families, even if it meant tolerating the charade of the trial, and that is going to apply to finding a solution now.
Compensation
In fact, the way forward has been known for a long time, as the Libyan foreign and justice ministers implied yesterday at a press conference.
The legal niceties will be attended to and then the High Judicial Council will intervene, either to pardon the accused or to commute their sentences and, perhaps, to allow them to serve them out in Bulgaria.
Then the hard bargaining starts.
The colonel will have to have something to assuage the families and the Libyans anticipate this will be in the form of compensation.
Figures of up to $10 million (£5m) per family have been mentioned - just the level of the compensation for the families of the Lockerbie disaster.
This, no doubt, is wildly ambitious and Libya's expectations will have to be downgraded, especially if the United States and the European Union are to be involved.
There is already a contact group of the US, Britain, Bulgaria and Libya discussing the issue and the Union has already put aside 500,000 euros (£335,000) to upgrade facilities in the hospital concerned.
Of course, the payments will not be called compensation but "humanitarian assistance" and Bulgaria adamantly refuses to be associated with them, for that would to admit guilt.
But that will be the way out and will be a small price to pay for access to Libya's oil - with new concessions to be announced today.
All that remains is to establish how much it is going to cost.
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