1998

December 14, 1998. The Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli receives a fax signed by a group of health professionals working at the Benghazi Children’s Hospital, informing it that Bulgarians Sevda Simeonova Yablanska and Snezhana Ivanova Dimitrova have been detained by the Libyan authorities and that Bulgarian medical workers have been interrogated daily at the hospital.

The Embassy meets with representatives of the General Directorates of Protocol and Consular Affairs of the General People’s Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation (GPC for FLIC). The Bulgarian diplomats learn that the infection of many children with HIV has been investigated in Benghazi for three months since October 1998.

December 16, 1998. The Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli presents a verbal note to the Directorate General of Consular Affairs of the GPC for FLIC, urging that Sevda Yablanska and Snezhana Dimitrova be released. They are released and the investigative proceedings are terminated.

December 18, 1998. The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry asks the Health Ministry in a letter to arrange for the Compass Consult company to provide assistance to the specialists it has sent to Libya. It emerges later that in late 1998 the Bulgarian Embassy has not linked the brief detentions of Bulgarians in Benghazi (which were not unusual, as it turned out) to the investigation that autumn into a massive spread of AIDS. Sofia has not been informed of the nascent AIDS scandal.

1999

February 10, 1999. The Embassy in Tripoli is alerted that 23 Bulgarian health professionals working at the Benghazi hospital have gone missing. Eyewitnesses say they have been bussed away the day before without coercion. The Bulgarian Embassy presents to the GPC for FLIC a verbal note asking for an explanation but is not informed of the names of the missing Bulgarians.

Meetings are requested, including one with the Libyan foreign minister.

February 12, 1999. Sofia. Branimir Zaimov, Head of the Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department, summons Libyan Ambassador Adel Beshti Raubi to tell him that the Foreign Ministry has been informed that unidentified armed people kidnapped 23 Bulgarian specialists from their homes on February 10, 1999, and their whereabouts are unknown. Zaimov asks that a check be conducted, that detailed information and an exact list of the kidnapped be provided, and that the Bulgarian specialists be found and immediately released.

February 13, 1999. The Bulgarian Consul in Tripoli is sent to Benghazi. He finds out that an investigation is being held into the growing number of children infected with HIV at the children’s hospital there.

February 13, 1999. The Foreign Ministry issues its first press release on the case.

February 15, 1999. In a note to the People’s Bureau of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, the Foreign Ministry demands official information and a list of the Bulgarians detained in Benghazi around February 10. It insists that all Bulgarians detained without legal grounds be released.

February 15, 1999. Zaimov meets with Libyan Charge d’Affaires Ayad Aboudaher to state that Bulgaria is deeply concerned about the lack of information on the fate of the Bulgarian specialists arrested in Benghazi and asks the diplomat to provide information on the list of the detained Bulgarians, the official grounds for their detention, the nature of the investigation and its expected time frame. The Charge d’Affaires says he has been trying to obtain official information, which will be provided to the Bulgarian authorities when available, without committing himself to a time limit.

February 15, 1999. The Foreign Ministry issues an official declaration.

February 17, 1999. Deputy Foreign Minister Marin Raikov summons Libyan Charge d’Affaires Ayad Aboudaher and asks him about:

- the reasons for the Bulgarians’ arrest and detention for a whole week without official notification of the Bulgarian side;
- the Libyan motives for denying Bulgarian Embassy officials access to the detainees.

Aboudaher says the Embassy possesses only unofficial information. The Bulgarian nationals have been summoned as witnesses in the investigative proceedings in question, he says. Raikov informs the Libyan diplomat of the Foreign Ministry‘s decision to recall Ambassador Krustyu Ilov and send a working group to Tripoli to clarify the issue. He asks the Libyan authorities for full cooperation with the working group, stressing that the alarming case is being followed by the prime minister himself.

February 18, 1999. For the first time the GPC for FLIC officially informs the Embassy in Tripoli by a note that “precautionary measures” have been taken against several Bulgarian doctors and nurses working at the Benghazi Children’s Hospital. Such measures have also been taken against people of other nationalities working in Benghazi, following complaints about a growing number of AIDS cases among children who have been treated at that hospital. Attached is a list of 15 Bulgarians who have been released on February 16. It turns out later that the list is incorrect and not all of those listed have been released.

After the Embassy’s attempts to clarify the case and arrange a meeting with the detainees fail, Foreign Minister Nadezhda Mihailova sends to Libya a working group led by Lyudmil Spassov, then acting Head of the Middle East and North Africa Department, for the period between February 19 and March 8, 1999. The group presents to Libyan Foreign Minister Omar al-Mountasser a written message from Mihailova. It calls for clarification of all circumstances surrounding the arrest of the Bulgarian health professionals and for their release if no specific charges have been brought against them. Mountaser says the actions of the investigative authorities are not directed against the interests of the Bulgarian nationals in Libya. Other foreign nationals, of Egypt, the Philippines, etc., have been summoned to cooperate with the investigators. The detainees are in good physical and mental condition, their safety is not at risk, and their rights are guaranteed as provided for by the law.

If charges are brought against any of the detainees, the Embassy will be officially notified with a view to taking the necessary steps to provide them with legal counsel, the Libyan Minister promised.

The Libyan side is satisfied with the Bulgarian specialists’ performance and has an interest in a further successful promotion of this cooperation, he said.

A written message sent by Mountaser to Mihailova, dated March 18, 1999, contains the following commitments:

- the actions of the investigative authorities are not directed against the interests of the Bulgarian nationals in Libya;
- the detainees are in good physical and mental condition, their safety is not at risk, and their legitimate rights are guaranteed in compliance with international standards and traditions.

Most of the detained Bulgarian nationals have been released and action has been taken to accelerate the release of the rest when the preliminary investigation ends, provided there is an element of innocence and good intentions, the message says. The actions of the investigators are certain to be absolutely transparent, fair and unbiased, showing no prejudice or discrimination against the suspects, irrespective of their nationality. The Libyan side emphasizes its resolve to observe all international laws, standards and traditions, to abide by the agreements concluded, take a civilized approach, and respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all foreigners without discrimination, prejudice or bias and, at the same time maintain justice, observance of the law, the public good and public health, the Libyan Minister says in his message to Mihailova.

The Bulgarian working group manages to meet with the detained Bulgarian medical workers, although such meetings are not usually allowed during the investigation. The Bulgarians are in good physical and mental condition.

It is only during the visit that the working group finds out that the problem with the detained Bulgarians is connected with complicated large-scale investigative proceedings intended to throw light on an extremely serious domestic problem of the Libyan authorities: the widespread infection of children with AIDS. The length of the Bulgarian specialists’ detention in Tripoli is largely due to the specific character of the investigation.

March 4, 1999. In a letter to the National Security Service, the Head of the Foreign Ministry’s Consular Department asks which of the listed Bulgarian medical workers in Libya has visited Israel because there has been unofficial information on such a visit. If the visit is confirmed, the Bulgarian woman in question will be sentenced to death under Libyan law. Zaimov insists that the Bulgarian in question leave Libya as soon as possible.

March 7, 1999. The Libyan General People’s Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation informs the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry by a note that six members of the group subjected to precautionary measures have been detained on a warrant issued by the investigative authorities in connection with the case of infecting children in Benghazi with HIV. Some of the Bulgarians’ names on that list are misspelt in Arabic: Nassya Stoicheva Ninova, (actually Nenova), Valentina Manolova Siropova (Siropoulo), Valya Georgieva Chervenyashka, Snezhana Ivanova Dimitrova, Kristina Malinova Baicheva (Vulcheva), Dr Zdravko Georgiev.

April 20, 1999. The Embassy in Tripoli receives unofficial information that one of the detained nurses has attempted suicide.

April 22, 1999. Lyudmil Spassov, acting Head of the Middle East and North Africa Department, summons the Libyan Ambassador in Sofia and demands that:

- the detained Bulgarians’ release be speeded up;
- information be provided regarding the unofficial reports that the detained nurse Nassya Stoicheva attempted to commit suicide;
- seven medical workers whose passports have been withheld be allowed to return to Bulgaria as their employment contracts have expired;
- a meeting with the detainees requested in a note by the Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli be expedited.

May 25, 1999. The GPC for FLIC notifies the Embassy by a note signed six days earlier, on May 19, that “as regards the accused in the AIDS case, the competent authorities referred the case to the Prosecutor’s Office on May 15, 1999.”

On May 26, 1999, the Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli asks the Libyan Foreign Ministry by a note to provide the following information:

the names of the accused Bulgarians;
the charges brought against them;
the name of the prosecutor assigned to the case with a view to establishing contact with him.

May 28, 1999. Lyudmil Spassov, acting Head of the Foreign Ministry’s Middle East and North Africa Department, meets with Libyan Ambassador Farag Gibril al-Saklyul. Spassov asks for an explanation of the note of the GPC for FLIC to the Embassy in Tripoli, which says that “the case of the accused in the AIDS affair has been referred to the Prosecutor’s Office” without naming the accused and their nationality. Ambassador Saklyul is almost certain that the persons in question are the detained Bulgarians. The fact that the case has been referred to the Prosecutor’s Office means that the investigation is over and preliminary legal proceedings have begun, during which the findings of the investigation will be particularized and it is possible that charges will be formulated under the respective Criminal Code clauses. Now that the investigation is over, the accused are entitled to a lawyer, but if the case is referred to the State Security Prosecution, the possibilities for legal defence of the accused will be limited. The Ambassador says the among the accused, but the latter has left Libya. The Ambassador promises to go into the unclear details of the case.

June 1, 1999. Harab Derbal, leader of the Libyan group of investigators, informs the Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli that he has referred the case to the Prosecutor’s Office. At the same time the Embassy receives unofficial information that the case has been referred to the People's Prosecution Bureau, a special judicial body handling cases connected with Libyan national security. People under investigation and those accused in such cases have more limited access to legal defence. Foreign lawyers cannot directly participate in such cases.

June 6, 1999. The Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli presents to the Libyan Foreign Ministry a note asking that the Charge d’Affaires meet with Said Hafyana, Head of the People’s Prosecution Bureau, as soon as possible to obtain the following information:

• the names of the Bulgarian suspects in the case, if any;
• the charges pressed;
• the name of the prosecutor handling the case;
• possibilities for meetings of Embassy officials with the detainees;
• measures that must be taken to organize the legal defence: retaining a lawyer, etc.

June 16, 1999. During a visit to Pretoria, Deputy Foreign Minister Marin Raikov manages on his own initiative to meet and talk to Muammar Qaddafi. Raikov expresses Bulgaria’s expectations for humane treatment of the detained Bulgarians and a favourable outcome of the situation in the near future.

Colonel Qaddafi expresses concern over the case, describing it as complex. He says he does not have sufficient information and an opinion on the progress of the investigation yet. He says the issue will be settled on the basis of an independent and unbiased investigation whose findings are forthcoming.

The Libyan leader expresses readiness for further promotion of cooperation with Bulgaria in the spirit of the positive experience gained over the years.

July 6, 1999. Bulgarian Charge d’Affaires Roumen Petrov is received by the Secretary of the General People’s Committee (Minister) for Justice and Public Security Mohammed Zouay and Libyan Prosecutor General Salem Wali. Petrov asks that:

- a meeting be organized with the detainees so as to provide them with a lawyer;
- arrangement of the return to Bulgaria of the seven medical workers who asked the Foreign Ministry for assistance;
- return of the documents to the medical workers who have been detained and released, so they can arrange their stay in Libya or leave the country;
- granting of exit visas to two nurses in Benghazi whose documents have been withheld, although they are not connected with the case in any way;
- imposition of fines for invalid documents on the hospital administration, not on the Bulgarians, who are victims anyway.

Salem Wali confirms that the case has been referred to Said Hafyana, Head of the People’s Prosecution Bureau, for preliminary legal proceedings. Wali says he is familiar with the facts gathered by the investigative authorities, which need further clarification. He says information is expected “from abroad” to make things clearer.

The preliminary proceedings are at an initial stage which does not presuppose the involvement of a lawyer, Zouay says. He promises cooperation on the rest of the issues.

July 12, 1999. The Embassy in Tripoli receives a note dated June 14, 1999. The Libyan Foreign Ministry informs it that “a recently received report from the competent authorities said the accused have been handed over to the People’s Prosecution Bureau since the case is within its competence”.

August 14, 1999. Charge d’Affaires Roumen Petrov is received by Said Hafyana, Head of the People’s Prosecution Bureau, who says this is a political case directed against the regime in Libya. It has been established that it is not the Bulgarians but an external power that is behind the case, he says. However, the Bulgarians have been involved. If the evidence gathered is corroborated, the Bulgarians will be charged with murder, he says.

Hafyana also says defence lawyers will be admitted only after charges are brought. He says no charges have been formulated and made yet.

None of those who worked in the hospital can leave Libya before the end of the investigation, Hafyana says.

August 24, 1999. Deputy Foreign Minister Marin Raikov summons Libyan Charge d’Affaires Ayad Aboudaher and expresses concern over unofficial information that a public trial, which will broadcast live on Libyan television, is under preparation. Raikov is concerned that given the Libyan citizens’ extreme sensitivity to the case, this might breed anti-Bulgarian attitudes in Libya.

September 2, 1999. The newly appointed Bulgarian Ambassador to Libya Lyudmil Spassov leaves for Tripoli.

October 1999. Lawyer Vladimir Sheitanov, who has been retained by the Bulgarian defendants’ families, establishes contacts with the Foreign Ministry.

October 21, 1999. Submitting his credentials in Tripoli, Ambassador Spassov insists that:

- meetings with the arrested Bulgarian be held on a regular basis;
- the investigation be speeded up, as well as the delivery of a conclusion by the competent Libyan authorities;
- the Bulgarians be allowed legal defence in case charges are pressed against them;
- the Bulgarians who have been detained and then released or whose Libyan contracts have expired, be allowed to return to Bulgaria.


November 17-19, 1999. Sofia. 21^st session of the Bulgarian-Libyan Mixed Commission for Economic, Industrial, Technical and Trade Cooperation. Deputy Prime Minister Evgenii Bakurdjiev raises the question about the Bulgarian medics with Libyan Secretary of the General People’s Committee (Minister) for Youth and Sport Muhammed al-Hijazi.

The Bulgarian side said as follows:

• We recognize the extremely serious humanitarian and moral aspect of the mass infection of Libyan children with the AIDS virus. We understand the drama of the infected children and their families. We clearly see how serious this problem is for Libya and for the Libyan Government.
• At the same time, the long detention of our compatriots by the Libyan authorities causes serious concern – not just for the families and friends of the detainees. All Bulgarians working in Libya are seriously worried. The whole Bulgarian public is concerned. The case is closely followed by the Bulgarian Government.

1. The competent Libyan authorities should step up the investigation and the presentation of a conclusion. We find it hard to explain to the Bulgarian public and the media why the Bulgarians are being held in custody for so long without clear charges pressed against them. The Bulgarian side considers our compatriots innocent unless proven otherwise.
2. The Bulgarian health professionals, who have been arrested and then released without any charges against them, should be allowed to return to Bulgaria.
3. If charges are brought against the Bulgarian detainees, they should be promptly granted the right to legal defence.
4. Meetings with the detainees should be allowed on a regular basis so that we can be sure of their physical and mental health. Visiting the detainees is an irrevocable consular right and an obligation of each country, enshrined in international law.
5. The Libyan authorities should extend cooperation to all Bulgarian citizens whose Libyan contracts have expired and who are not involved in the case, so that they can return to Bulgaria. It is a matter of extreme importance to us because pleas for help have been sent to the supreme Bulgarian governmental institutions by many Bulgarians.
6. The two sides should demonstrate the necessary political will and make an effort towards a solution of this serious problem in the interests of both Bulgaria and Libya so as to preserve intact the basis of the existing friendly relations between the two countries.

1. The Libyan leadership wants a thorough and objective investigation into the infection of the Libyan children with the AIDS virus. Libya has no interest in seeing the case drag on. How long the investigation will take will depend on the complex nature of the crime which can be traced outside Libya. Both Libyans and foreigners are under investigation, including citizens of friendly Bulgaria, who unfortunately have been used by other countries’ intelligence services.
2. Most of the 23 Bulgarians initially held have been released and now only six remain under arrest. The others were released because their whereabouts in Libya are known and they have been ordered to surrender their passports. Therefore, should a need arise, they could be subpoenaed by the judicial authorities – to testify, for example.
3. It is true that the last meeting with the detainees was delayed. There, however, the Bulgarian Consul in Tripoli, Plamen Ikonomov, treated the attending Libyan officials in a manner that is inadmissible for a diplomat.
4. The Libyan side is aware of the psychological and public pressure under which the Bulgarian Government finds itself in connection with the case and recognizes its sensible and well-intentioned approach up to this moment.

• With all due respect for the independence of the investigative bodies, the Libyan side will do whatever is possible to step up the investigation.
• The Bulgarians will be granted the right to legal defence in case charges are pressed against them. Under Libyan legislation, the participation of a defence counsel in criminal cases is obligatory and without it the court cannot proceed with a case. A Libyan lawyer can be appointed by the Libyan side or named by the Bulgarian side. Also, a Bulgarian lawyer can be sent over to Libya to render assistance in the defence of the Bulgarian citizens.
• Efforts will be made to arrange regular visits to the arrested Bulgarians for representatives of the Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli.
• In cooperation with the Bulgarian Embassy, the Libyan side will make arrangements for Bulgarians with expired Libyan contracts who are not involved in the investigation to return to Bulgaria even though there is no information that they encounter any obstacles in doing so.
• The two sides may seek a political solution only after the completion of a possible trial on the case, when it is clear whether the court will deliver a judgement against the Bulgarians and what the judgement will be. One such political solution may be a transfer of the Bulgarian convicts to serve their sentences in Bulgaria.
• Any interference in the work of the Libyan investigative and court authorities before the sentencing date is tantamount to calling into question their impartiality.

January 2000. The Embassy in Tripoli receives unofficial information that the six Bulgarians will probably be tried, with no hint of the charges that may be brought against them.

January 21, 2000. The Embassy in Tripoli releases information that the case is at the stage of preliminary investigation and that the People’s Prosecution Bureau is yet to come up with a position on whether or not the case records should be referred to the court. The Embassy expects to be recommended suitable government-paid Libyan lawyers as the understanding is that the opportunities are limited for retaining a free-lance lawyer. Once the charges are officially brought, it will be possible to include a Bulgarian lawyer in the defence team. It remains unclear when the trial will start, but the Embassy believes that there will be enough time to organize the defence.

February 7, 2000. Ambassador Spassov says that according to unconfirmed information, the court is holding a hearing at which the six Bulgarian detainees will be indicted.

On the same day he receivesd the following instructions:

• to find out whether this means that a trial has already gone under way and, if that is the case, to send immediately to the Foreign Ministry proposed arrangements for the defence, or else inform the Foreign Ministry in due course about the beginning of the trial;
• to request a copy of the indictment;
• to raise the question of the authorization of the Libyan and Bulgarian lawyers.

February 9, 2000. The Ambassador has not obtained a copy of the indictment. Assurances have been given that the Libyan side will provide full cooperation in arranging legal defence for the Bulgarians, including securing the presence of a Bulgarian lawyer. The Ambassador insists on receiving a copy of the indictment. The Head of the European Affairs Directorate schedules a new meeting with him for the next day and promises to bring a copy of the indictment.

February 10, 2000. In a letter to Health Minister Ilko Semerdjiev, Foreign Minister Nadezhda Mihailova suggests that a group of top Bulgarian experts in hematology, virology, prophylactics and AIDS prevention be set up to help the defence team by preparing expert reports and assessment of specific facts pertaining to the case.

February 10, 2000. Ambassador Spassov receives official verbal information from the Director of the European Affairs Directorate of the Libyan Foreign Ministry that three days earlier, on February 7, 2000, the court has opened a trial in the matter of Case No. 44 of 1999 against the six Bulgarian citizens. He is also informed that eight Libyans and one Palestinian, all of them of the administrative and managerial staff of the children hospital in Benghazi, have also been charged in the case. Ambassador Spassov is not provided with a copy of the indictment. The attending Bulgarian Embassy interpreter is dictated the part of the indictment which concerns the Bulgarians.

Without formal notification of Bulgaria, the court holds a hearing where, according to unofficial information, six Bulgarian citizens are indicted. Later on it emerges that the principal charges against all defendants in the case, including the Bulgarians, are: commission of acts within Libyan territory leading, sooner or later, to the indiscriminate killing of people for the purpose of subversion of the security of the state (a capital offence); involvement in a conspiracy and collusion for the commission of a premeditated crime; causing epidemic by means of injecting 393 children at the Al Fatih Hospital in Benghazi with the AIDS virus (a capital offence); and actions conflicting with the norms and traditions in Libya.

The principal charges pressed against all defendants, including the Bulgarians are:

• Commission of acts within Libyan territory leading, sooner or later, to the indiscriminate killing of people for the purpose of subversion of the security of the State (a capital offence). Involvement in a conspiracy and collusion for the commission of the above premeditated crime (an aggravating circumstance).

• Causing epidemic by means of injecting 393 children (of whom 23 have died before October 1999) at the Al Fatih Hospital in Benghazi with the AIDS virus (a capital offence where multiple fatalities have occurred).

• Premeditated murder through use of substances which cause death, sooner or later, by means of injecting children with the AIDS virus (a capital offence).

• engaging in illicit sexual relationships (against three of the Bulgarian women);
  
  
• distilling alcohol (against one Bulgarian woman);

• drinking alcohol in public places (against five Bulgarians);

• illegally transacting in foreign currency (against all six Bulgarians).

The Ambassador in Tripoli is instructed to request meetings with the Ministers of the Interior, of Justice and Public Security, and with other Libyan ministers, to follow up on the demarche of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry.

The President and the Prime Minister are notified of the charges.

On the next day, February 12, Krassimir Stefanov, Dimiter Tsanchev and Foreign Ministry Spokesman Radko Vlaikov meet in the Foreign Ministry the families of the defendants and inform them in detail about the situation and the charges. Attending is Lawyer Sheitanov.

February 14, 2000. The Foreign Ministry prepares an action plan on a domestic, bilateral and international scale, in connection with the trial. Contacts are established with third countries, international organizations and Bulgarian diplomats, politicians and business people enjoying credibility in Libya, to get them involved in the efforts to achieve a favourable outcome in the situation.

February 16, 2000. Foreign Minister Nadezhda Mihailova brings the case to the notice of the National Assembly Chairman and the floor leaders of the parliamentary groups. They unanimously decide that information on the case should be withheld from the mass media. This is done so as to allow for adequate measures to be taken and to give time for a possible Libyan response. The prevailing understanding is that in order to achieve the main goal of protecting the six Bulgarians, it would be expedient to avoid a public debate, especially one dominated by anti-Libyan feelings, that might harm their interests.

February 17, 2000. Bulgaria s Permanent Mission in Geneva has obtained a copy of a classified report of the World Health Organization, describing the situation in the Benghazi Hospital and explaining how the children have been infected with HIV.

February 17, 2000. The Libyan Embassy informs the Foreign Ministry by a verbal note that “the first court hearing in the matter of Case No. 44 of 1999 was held on February 7 and the six Bulgarian citizens and an Arab citizen were charged with deliberately infecting 393 Libyan children with the AIDS virus by means of injecting them with contaminated products.” The note says that the charges “may carry the death penalty” upon conviction.

February 22, 2000. In the absence of an official Libyan reaction, Foreign Minister Mihailova sends a message to her Libyan counterpart Omar al- Mountasser, voicing the Bulgarian Government’s concern over the failure of the Libyan side to deliver on its official commitment to a just, transparent and impartial trial. The message expresses Bulgaria’s readiness for immediate establishment of a personal contact at the highest level between the Bulgarian and the Libyan state leadership for the purpose of finding a political solution in this situation. The message sets forth several specific demands:

• that the Bulgarian defendants be visited by a Bulgarian Embassy official in Tripoli so that they could authorize Bulgarian and Libyan lawyers recommended by the Embassy;
• that the next court hearing be adjourned to allow the preparation of the defence;
• that a copy of the full text of the indictment be provided;
• that the Bulgarian Embassy be granted access to the case records and admitted to the court hearings;
• that the Bulgarian lawyers be afforded an opportunity to assist in the defence of the six Bulgarians;
• that all Bulgarian health professionals, who are not involved in the case and whose Libyan contracts have expired, be allowed to return to Bulgaria.

February 22, 2000. Through the Embassy in Tripoli, the Libyan side is requested to arrange a telephone conversation between President Peter Stoyanov and the Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qaddafi.

February 23, 2000. President Peter Stoyanov talks over the phone with Colonel Qaddafi and expresses the conviction that the Bulgarian medics have not committed the crime with which they are charged. He urges for a fair and transparent trial and adjournment of the next court hearing so that the Bulgarian and Libyan lawyers of the defence can prepare. Colonel Qaddafi says that he, too, does not believe Bulgarians could have committed such crimes. He promises to eliminate all obstacles to the arrival of a Bulgarian lawyer and to enquire personally about the progress of the trial.

February 25, 2000. Prime Minister Ivan Kostov talks over the phone with Italian Prime Minister Massimo D’Allema and briefs him on the key facts about the trial against the six Bulgarians. The Italian Prime Minister promises to contact the Libyan authorities that very day and seek an adjournment of the trial.

February 26, 2000. An official Bulgarian delegation, consisting of Justice Minister Teodossii Simeonov, Prosecutor General Nikola Filchev and Deputy Health Minister Galin Kamenov, leaves for Tripoli.

February 27, 2000. In the presence of Bulgarian Embassy officials, the Bulgarian defendants sign authorizations to the name of Libyan lawyer Osman Bizanti. (at that time, the authorization of Bulgarian lawyer Sheitanov is not yet arranged). The Embassy officials find the Bulgarian defendants in good physical condition and do not detect any traces of torture.

February 27, 2000. The Italian Ambassador in Tripoli contacts Justice Minister Simeonov and notifies him that, in response to Prime Minister Kostov’s request, he has been instructed by the Italian Prime Minister to provide assistance so that the Libyan authorities ensure a fair and transparent trial.

February 27, 2000. Prosecutor General Filchev confers with General Tarhuni, Head of the General Directorate of Investigations at the General People’s Committee for Justice and Public Security. Filchev insists that the proceedings should be fair and transparent and that the Bulgarian defendants’ rights should be fully respected. Tarhuni pledges that the proceedings will be fair. In Tarhuni’s offic,e Filchev meets with the Bulgarian defendants but is not allowed to talk with them or hand them letters and photos from their relatives.

February 28, 2000. Tripoli. Court hearing. The trial is adjourned until April 3.

February 28, 2000. Libyan Justice and Public Security Minister Zouay receives the Bulgarian delegation.

Zouay states the following:

• public pressure has been exerted on the part of the infected children’s parents, who have set up a Steering Committee insisting on prompt completion of the investigation and retribution;
• during the investigation, Egyptian, British, Philippine, Hungarian, Polish and Bulgarian nationals have been detained; all of them have worked at the Hawari Children’s Hospital in Benghazi;
• on February 7 the People’s Prosecution Bureau pressed charges against 21 persons in the presence of a court-appointed lawyer (however, only 16 are named in the indictment);
• the judiciary in Libya is independent of the executive branch of government;
• the Bulgarian defendants will be afforded all opportunities for defence, and the trial will be open and fair;
• this is not a political trial, as the charges suggest a serious criminal offence.

Justice Minister Simeonov says his visit is prompted by the concern of the Bulgarian side over violations of the Bulgarian defendants’ legitimate rights. Simeonov says the adjournment of the trial is seen as a positive sign, suggesting that the serious breaches of procedure will be remedied.

Simeonov insists that the Bulgarians who have been ordered to surrender their passports should have them back. Zouay pledges to settle the issue in the following few days.

Privately, Zouay tells the members of the Bulgarian delegation that serious breaches of procedure have been committed through the fault of Hafiyana that Qaddafi in person has given directions to address all issues related to the forthcoming trial; that the People’s Prosecution Court has so far passed one death sentence which has not been carried out; and that he has been notified about an anti-Libyan campaign in Bulgaria.

March 1, 2000. The General People’s Congress of Libya (the Parliament) replaces the country’s Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Head of the People’s Prosecution Bureau.

March 2000. Vassos Lyssaridis, leader of the United Democratic Union of Cyprus (EDEK), assures the Bulgarian Ambassador to Cyprus that he will use his fine personal contacts with Qaddafi to give the Bulgarian health professionals a fair trial and guaranteed rights.

In a separate development, it emerges that the Italian Ambassador in Tripoli has made a demarche to the Libyan leaders on behalf of the European Union, calling for fair judicial proceedings in accordance with internationally accepted standards.

Following Yevgeny Primakov’s arrangements at the request of Foreign Minister Mihailova, the Russian Ambassador in Tripoli conveys a similar message by the Russian Parliament to Colonel Qaddafi.

March 14, 2000. Ambassador Spassov meets with Minister Zouay. Answering questions which have been raised, Zouay says that Hafiyana has exceeded his authority and is responsible for the breaches of procedure committed while he was in office; that later on the delay was due to the transfer of authority to General Misurati; that Misurati has promised that lawyer Bizanti will be allowed to interview the defendants and to have access to the case records immediately after the Muslim festival of Kurban Bayram (March 15-17); that a new adjournment of the trial is very likely; that Misurati has pledged to provide an opportunity for Bulgarian Embassy officials to meet with the defendants immediately after the festival; that the case records have been transferred to the People’s Court which grants access to no one except the Libyan defence lawyer; that he has instructed the head of the General Directorate of Foreign Travel Passports and Aliens Affairs (GDFTPAA) to return the passports to all Bulgarians who are not facing criminal charges and to issue exit visas to them in a relaxed procedure; and that he has instructed Misurati and the GDFTPAA chief to arrange the lifting of the ban on leaving the country for Bulgarians holding valid exit visas.

March 2000. The Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli reports that Ouzounov has visited his wife, defendant Valya Chervenyashka. Chervenyashka reportedly said she had been physically tortured in May-June 1999. She is the only one who has not made or signed a written confession. The Libyans are allegedly substituting documents contained in the incriminating records. The Bulgarian Consul in Tripoli and lawyer Sheitanov are present at the meeting. Ambassador Spassov advises Ouzounov to consult his lawyer on how to use the information about the duress.

March 16, 2000. A visitor to the Bulgarian Embassy in Washington, D.C., introduces himself as a relative of Palestinian defendant Ashraf.

- the Palestinian and all Bulgarian defendants have been tortured with electric shocks and by other methods, which can be proved by an independent expert examination;
- the trial has been framed up to cover up for the real culprits, who are senior Libyan officials;
- success can only be achieved through international pressure;
- the Bulgarians’ lawyers ought to cooperate with the lawyers representing the Palestinian.

March 21, 2000. Libyan Foreign Minister Abd al-Rahman Shalgam receives Ambassador Spassov, who presents the requests of the defence. Spassov says that “there is no doubt about the objectivity in the work of the Libyan judiciary and its competent authorities” and that “existing problems pertain concern rather technical and procedural matters and should be addressed in a constructive way;” that the Bulgarian side believes that the Bulgarian defendants are not guilty but “it is up to the court to pass the final judgment solely on the strength of facts and evidence.” Shalgam says the case involving the Bulgarian medics cannot and should not affect the overall development of bilateral relations; and that “this case is purely legal and the judgment will be passed by the court, without external pressure.” The Minister says the language used by the Bulgarian press verges on racism, and that the Bulgarian press is engaging in unrestrained attacks and accusations. The Minister urges the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry to distance itself from such allegations and refute them in a declaration.

March 2000. Paris. In response to questions asked by the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, Sophie Chamaret, an assistant to Professor Luc Montagnier of the Institut Pasteur releases information on AIDS infection in Libya. Chamaret says the Benghazi case is, perhaps, a case of in-hospital infection, most probably due to multiple use of syringes or in taking blood samples for testing. It is very unlikely that the infection may have occurred through vaccination, as the children are aged between 1 and 15.

April 1-9, 2000. Lawyer Hristo Danov goes to Tripoli in his capacity as President Peter Stoyanov’s personal envoy. Back in Sofia, on April 11 Danov tells a news conference that the Bulgarian medics were tortured during the investigation.

April 25, 2000. Ambassador Spassov meets with Libyan Justice and Public Security Minister Mohammed Zouay and reiterates the following requests:

- that assistance be rendered so that the competent authorities issue a document allowing lawyer Vladimir Sheitanov act as lawyer Bizanti’s consultant;
- that lawyer Bizanti be allowed to obtain a copy of the case records;
- that a Bulgarian Embassy official be allowed to hold regular meetings with the Bulgarian defendants;
- that the medics who wish to return to Bulgaria be issued exit visas.

April 28, 2000. The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry presents a note to the Libyan Embassy in Sofia, stating that it has evidence that the Bulgarian defendants have been under physical duress and requesting information on the circumstances of their arrest and the methods used during deposition. The Foreign Ministry also requests a report from the competent Libyan authorities as to whether any action has been taken in respect to the officers concerned, so as to prevent any form of duress against the Bulgarian citizens on trial.

April 30, 2000. Tripoli. Court hearing. At lawyer Bizanti’s motion, the trial is adjourned until June 4.

May 3, 2000. The Libyan authoities allow Vladimir Sheitanov, the lawyer retained by the Bulgarian defendants’ relatives, to join the Bulgarian citizens’ defence, following repeated requests by the Bulgarian authorities ever since the opening of the trial.

May 5, 2000. The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry presents a note to the Libyan Embassy in Sofia, urging the Libyan authorities to grant the requests for collection of further evidence and for medical expert examinations, made at the April 30 court hearing.

May 20, 2000. Brussels. The International Association of Democratic Lawyers adopts a resolution based on a report by the Union of Jurists in Bulgaria. The drafters of the resolution call for adequate legal defence of the Bulgarian health professionals and recommend that they be provided with a version of case records in their mother tongue, be allowed to choose freely their lawyers, be granted the right to defend themselves, and that the Libyan Government admit international observers to the trial. The Association’s President, Amar Bentoumi of Algeria, personally delivers the document to the Libyan authorities.

May 22, 2000. Rome. Foreign Minister Mihailova requests assistance in the case from the Italian Foreign Minister and the Holy See. Cardinal Sodano, State Secretary of the Holy See, requests and receives a letter detailing the case.

May 31, 2000. Regular meetings with the defendants are allowed on the first day of each month.

June 1, 2000. Bulgarian Consul Emil Manolov visits the defendants. He finds Dr Georgiev in poor health and in despair. All defendants complain of poor prison conditions. Manolov urges Colonel Mansur of the People’s Prosecution Bureau, who is present at the meeting, to have medical treatment provided for Georgiev and better conditions for all. The nurses say they were cruelly tortured before May 12, 1999: beaten with sticks and rubber pipes and subjected to electric shocks, which often led to loss of consciousness, and often left without food and water. After May 12, they say, psychological pressure was exerted on them, involving threats that the physical torture may be resumed. They grant their consent that action be taken in connection with the torture. Georgiev says he has taken home empty bottles of biological products.

June 4, 2000. Tripoli. Court hearing. The trial is adjourned until September 17, 2000.

June 6, 2000. The Libyan Ambassador in Sofia presents a verbal note to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, protesting against a candle-lit action in front of the Libyan Embassy on June 4, held by members of the public responding to an appeal by the Hushove TV show. The note says such displays are not conducive to the promotion of bilateral relations. The Embassy requests assistance to prevent such displays in future and to tighten the security protection of the Embassy compound and the Libyan Ambassador’s Residence.

June 7, 2000. Ambassador Spassov meets with Ali al-Uadji, acting Head of the European Countries Directorate at the Libyan Foreign Ministry. Al-Uadji voices concern over the tone adopted by the Bulgarian press and by some Bulgarian government officials, and accuses Bulgarian state institutions of intervening in the work of the court.

June 7, 2000. It emerges that Haled Makluf Tilisi, a translator at the Libyan Embassy in Sofia, has taken part in the Bulgarian medics’ interrogations.

June 7-10, 2000. Cairo. During an official visit to Egypt, Foreign Minister Mihailova meets with President Hosni Mubarak and raises the issue of the Libyan trial.

June 7, 2000. Deputy Minister Vassilii Takev meets with National Assembly Chairman Yordan Sokolov and the floor leaders of all parliamentary groups to discuss a visit by a parliamentary delegation to Libya.

June 10, 2000. Geneva. Labour and Social Policy Minister Ivan Neikov meets with the Deputy Prime Minister of Malta and requests assistance from the Maltese Government.

June 22, 2000. The Libyan Embassy in Sofia presents a note requesting assistance and non-admission of the publication of items such as a story in the June 9 issue of Douma, headlined “Tour of Golan Hights Not Like Stroll in Boris Gardens Park,” as they do not serve the two countries’ interests.

June 29, 2000. In a note to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, the Libyan Embassy in Sofia:

- appreciates “the reasonable position and commitment” expressed in Prime Minister Ivan Kostov’s statements;
- describes the Foreign Ministry Spokesman’s statement of May 31, 2000, as unacceptable;
- criticizes Bulgarian press reports;
- reports that the Bulgarian Consul in Tripoli has been allowed to visit the defendants on the first day of every month;
- repeats the assurances that the trial will be fair and objective and that no deliberate attempt has been made to harm the Bulgarian nationals;
- says that no reporters, Libyan ones included, will be admitted to the trial;
- denies any linkage between the trial and the suspension of the operations to Libya of Bulgaria’s flag-carrier Balkan Airlines.

July 3, 2000. At the request of the Bulgarian Ambassador in Paris Stefan Tafrov, Mme Danielle Mitterrand sends a letter to President Peter Stoyanov, saying she has written the following in a letter to Colonel Qaddafi:

- the Bulgarians cannot imagine that medical practitioners could have committed such a premeditated crime;
- even if the court eventually finds this to be true, all guarantees for a fair trial should be provided;
- the source of the contaminated products should be identified through an international expert examination.

Mme Mitterrand also expresses the hope that Colonel Qaddafi will consider the matter personally.

July 15-16, 2000. A Bulgarian parliamentary delegation, comprising members of all parliamentary parties and led by National Assembly Chairman Yordan Sokolov, visits Libya. It holds meetings with senior officials of the General People’s Congress, the Prime Minister, and members of the Movement of Revolutionary Committees.

July 22, 2000. New York City. Deputy Foreign Minister Takev confers with Libya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Abuzed O. Dorda, who is a former prime minister. Takev briefs him on his meeting with the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs at which the issue of lifting the sanctions against Libya and Bulgaria’s interest in this matter was considered, among other things.

August 9, 2000. Ambassador Spassov is summoned to the Libyan Foreign Ministry. The Ministry tells him it has been irritated by a message of the Maltese Foreign Minister, recalling that during the visit of the Bulgarian parliamentary delegation in July the Libyan authorities have stressed their negative view of international mediation. The Ministry says further actions in this direction will have an adverse effect on bilateral relations and will by no means relieve the defendants’ fate.

August 17, 2000. Paris. The Chairman of the French National Assembly Foreign Affairs Committee Francois Loncle sends the Bulgarian Embassy in Paris a copy of a letter from the Libyan Ambassador in Paris, received in response to a demarche by the Committee Chairman concerning the issue of the Bulgarian health professionals. The letter says that “the case dates from 1998 and is very sensitive indeed. In order to solve this case in the best possible way, i.e. to achieve full guarantees for the Bulgarian nationals of fair defence and of fair and transparent court trial, all actions which are necessary now should be discrete so as to be effective, should be taken with due consideration lest they hurt anybody’s sensitivity.”

August 22, 2000. The Consulate General of Sudan in Sofia informs the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry by a note that Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir has discussed the case involving the Bulgarian medics with Libyan Leader Qaddafi, following a request by President Peter Stoyanov. The same issue was also discussed at a meeting between Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Ismail and his Libyan counterpart, the Consulate General says, adding that the issue will be raised yet again during a forthcoming visit by the Libyan Foreign Minister to Sudan.

August 25, 2000. Geneva. Daniel Tarantella, senior advisor at the World Health Organization (WHO), tells the office of Bulgaria’s Permanent Representative to the WHO that the Organization has sent a letter to the Libyan Mission, recommending a new expert examination of public health care practices in Libya. The letter requests that earlier reports should be declassified.

September 7, 2000. The Libyan Ambassador in Sofia presents a note to Dimiter Tsanchev, Head of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry Middle East and North Africa Department, stating that “an item which appeared in the September 5, 2000 issue of the Monitor daily under the headline ‘Libya Not Among Bulgarian Foreign Minister’s Priorities’ does not serve the interests of the two countries’ efforts to safeguard their mutual interests.”

September 13, 2000. The Foreign Ministry presents a note to the Libyan Embassy, requesting assistance for the issuing of Libyan entry visas to a group of journalists assigned by different media to cover the trial of the Bulgarian health professionals. This act is repeated on multiple occasions during the following months, before each court hearing in Tripoli.

September 14, 2000. New York City. Foreign Minister Nadezhda Mihailova confers with her Libyan counterpart Abd al-Rahman Shalgam. He gives assurances that the Bulgarian medics will have a fair trial. Mihailova insists on:

• an international expert medical examination;
• issuing Libyan visas to the Bulgarian defendants’ relatives;
• issuing visas to the Bulgarian journalists wishing to cover the trial.

The two chief diplomats agree to keep in constant touch, including through telephone communications. Shalgam says that Mihailova is always welcome to Libya.

September 17, 2000.Tripoli. Court hearing. The trial is adjourned until October 7, 2000.

September 25-27, 2000. Cairo. Prime Minister Ivan Kostov pays a working visit to Egypt. President Hosni Mubarak again commits himself to provide assistance in ensuring a fair trial of the Bulgarian medics.

October 7, 2000. Tripoli. Court hearing. The trial is adjourned until November 4, 2000.

November 4, 2000. Tripoli. Court hearing. The trial is adjourned until January 6, 2001.

November 16, 2000. Lawyer Bizanti receives answers from Professor Luc Perrin to questions posed in September. Bizanti also receives a copy of Perrin’s latest report to the Libyan authorities in connection with the infection of the children in Benghazi. Perrin categorically states his position that the explosive spread at the Benghazi Hospital was caused by three blood-transmitted viruses, HIV (AIDS), HCV (hepatitis C) and HBV (hepatitis B), and is due solely to a nosocomial (in-hospital) infection. According to the report, the viruses were spread through unsafe medical manipulations with improperly sterilized and multiply used instruments and syringes.

December 13, 2000. Bizanti meets with the Bulgarian defendants, informs them at length about the complicated nature of the trial. He hands them the Bulgarian translation of the indictment they had requested and elaborates on some procedural aspects of the trial.

December 19, 2000. Bulgarian Ambassador to Switzerland Leah Cohen meets with Perrin. The latter says he has undertaken to advise Bizanti and cooperate with him on medical issues. Perrin says he has presented his answers to eight questions put to him by Bizanti, which the latter intends to use in the trial. Perrin has documented similar cases of AIDS infection of seven mothers and six children at a Vienna hospital in September 1999 and March 2000. The infection was similar to the one in Benghazi in that it resulted from poor sanitation and the sexual transmission of the disease by HIV-positive fathers. In September 2000, a note by Kabir Ahmar appeared in the British journal The Lancet, giving a distorted account of the trial in Libya. Perrin immediately writes an article detailing the Benghazi case, which the journal rejects. Perrin is left with the impression that the procrastination of the trial will continue until a deal is reached.

2001

Late December 2000 - early January 2001. Perrin and Montaigner forward to Bizanti their answers to the latest batch of questions on the medical aspects of the case.

January 6, 2001. Tripoli. Court hearing. The trial is adjourned until February 10, 2001.

January 10, 2001. Consul Emil Manolov is notified by Colonel Mansur of the People’s Prosecution Bureau that the correspondence between the Bulgarian defendants and their relatives is suspended due to the derogatory references to Libya and the allegations of torture and duress contained in the letters. Ambassador Spasov requests in an informal conversation with Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Hassuna al-Shaush that only the letters deemed by the Libyan side to constitute a violation of the correspondence agreement be stopped rather than the entire correspondence.

January 17, 2001. The Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli is informed by the Charge d’Affaires of the Philippines that Bulgarian citizen Maria Ilieva Zasheva, a nurse at the pediatric ward at the Avicenna Hospital in Sirte, may be charged in connection with registered child cases of AIDS. Zasheva, together with four Filipino nurses, is questioned on a number of occasions in 2000 and is ordered to surrender her passport on May 15, 2000. Zasheva tells the Bulgarian Embassy she has been questioned through an interpreter - a Libyan doctor at the same hospital who studied medicine in Plovdiv.

Zasheva signs each of six or seven pages recording an Arabic version of her statements at the interrogation . On January 21, 2001, the date on which the Filipino nurses are arrested, Zasheva learns from a Libyan colleague, who claims he has seen the interrogation records as showing that she answered “Yes, sometimes” when asked whether she reuses disposable syringes. Zasheva tells the Bulgarian Embassy that she answered “No” to that particular question and to other such incriminating questions. After this information is received by the Bulgarian Embassy, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry instructs the Ambassador to contact Zasheva, to take her immediately to Tripoli and accommodate her at the Embassy building.

January 21, 2001. Four Filipino nurses at the Sirte Hospital are arrested. Three of them work with Zasheva at the pediatric ward. Zasheva is accommodated at the Bulgarian Embassy. Her passport is held by the People’s Prosecution Bureau in Tripoli.

January 30, 2001. The Interdepartmental Commission decides to make an official demarche to the Libyan side, raising the issue of Zasheva’s exit visa and requesting express guarantees of her unhindered departure from Libya.

February 10, 2001. Tripoli. Court hearing. The trial is adjourned until March 17, 2001.

February 17, 2001. R. Petrov, Counselor at the Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli, and Dr Lyudmil Beshkov meet with Bizanti. They focus on a court ruling obligating the defence to present the evidence of the witnesses for the defence. According to Bizanti, there is a possibility that the testimony of Perrin and Montaigner, of the attending physicians of the Libyan children hospitalized in Italy and of WHO officials may be presented as evidence in the courtroom. Bizanti requests assistance, including financial, from the Bulgarian side to implement this plan.

March 8, 2001. Sofia. The Council of Ministers adopts an ordinance on the allocation of national budget funds to meet additional expenses in connection with the appearance in court of possible witnesses in the matter of Case No. 44 of 1999 in Tripoli.

March 17, 2001. Tripoli. Court hearing. The trial is adjourned until April 28, 2001.

March 17, 2001. The Libyan administration returns Zasheva’s passport.

March 19, 2001. The People’s Prosecution Bureau gives its consent in principle to a resumption of the supply to the Bulgarian defendants with food, medicines and other necessities by the Bulgarian Embassy.

March 20, 2001. Bulgaria’s acting Permanent Representative to the United Nations meets with Libya’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Abuzed O. Dorda and states Bulgaria’s position on the case of the six Bulgarian health professionals. In response, the Libyan diplomat states the following:

“The trial of the six Bulgarians can in no way be construed as an attitude and a policy towards Bulgaria. On the contrary, the Bulgarian doctors and medical specialists enjoy popularity and trust in Libya.” As an example, he points to one of the “Colonel’s” daughters, whose personal nurse for over 10 years now has been a Bulgarian citizen. The children’s infection has shocked the Libyan public, the investigation has lasted more than six months, citizens of other states have also been charged in the case. The lawyer that was hired to defend the Bulgarians is one of Libya’s best.

The arguments set forth by Ambassador Dorda corroborate the theory that the trial has no political overtones and that the judgment will be impartial. Ambassador Dorda notes that it is Bulgaria that has made a political issue out of the trial. He said he has received more than 100 letters from NGOs in support of the Bulgarian medics.

March 22, 2001. Lawyer Sheitanov is afforded an opportunity to familiarize himself with the case records. According to Sheitanov, the files have been tampered with and he has not seen records from the investigation period.

March 28, 2001. Sheitanov informs the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry that “the trial in Libya against the Bulgarian medics has so far shown substantial departures from the pledge of the Libyan side for conduct of a fair and objective trial.”

March 2001. Prof. Perrin tells Bulgarian diplomats he would like to be considered an intermediary between the official Bulgarian and Libyan authorities in clarifying the scientific truth rather than Bizanti’s personal consultant. Perrin also expresses concern that the information he is supplying to Bizanti is probably not being used expeditiously or may be not used at all. He says he is not entirely at ease about the possible reaction of the Libyan side towards him. At the same time, he undertakes to cooperate in future with the Bulgarian side on the trial.

April 24, 2001. Deputy Foreign Minister Marin Raikov meets with the Libyan Ambassador to Bulgaria Farag al-Saklyul and emphasizes the respect of the Bulgarian side for the Libyan People’s Prosecution Bureau and the latter’s right to make independent decisions after carefully considering the case records and the case of the defence. Raikov stresses the conviction of the Bulgarian side that a just resolution of such a complicated issue as the AIDS infection can be reached only after careful consideration and evaluation of all elements and above all the scientific and medical aspects of the case. Raikov dwells on the fact that there world-renowned luminaries have established themselves in medicine, handling such matters in a purely professional and impartial maner. One such person is Professor Perrin. Within the context of the Bulgarian side-declared approach of complete openness and transparency of the dialogue on the problem which concerns not only the six Bulgarian defendants but also the clarification of the whole truth about the AIDS epidemic at the pediatric hospital in Benghazi, Raikov, acting on behalf of the Bulgarian Government, presents Perrin’s scientific opinions in writing on a number of purely medical aspects of the case. The documents prove the Bulgarian citizens’ innocence from the point of view of scientific and medical argumentation.

Ambassador Saklyul reiterates Libya’s position on the Bulgarian medics’ trial, which has been declared on numerous occasions, and emphasizes that the State has absolutely no influence on the court. He notes that only the court is competent to rule on the defendants’ innocence or guilt.

At the same time, he expresses his opinion that the materials in question, prepared by such a prominent and respected scholar, cannot but be of use.

April 25, 2001. Bulgarian journalists are denied entry visas to cover the April 28 court hearing. The Libyan Embassy notifies the three journalists who were issued visas the week before that these visas will not guarantee their entry into Libya and advises them not to travel to Tripoli.

April 27, 2001. Abuja, Nigeria. At the African AIDS Summit, Muammar Qaddafi delivers a lengthy speech in which he says that the CIA and the US engineered the AIDS virus in their laboratories and that the epidemic is a major experiment. As evidence, he cites the tragedy in Benghazi where close to 400 children have been infected by a doctor and a group of nurses acting on the orders of the CIA or Mossad. Qaddafi promises that the trial of these people will become an international trial, just as the trial of the Libyans in connection with the Lockerbie airliner bombing.

April 28, 2001. Tripoli. Court hearing. The trial is adjourned until May 13, 2001.

May 7, 2001. Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nadezhda Mihailova meets with the ambassadors of Arab countries to Bulgaria and sets forth Bulgaria’s position on the latest development of the case in light of Qaddafi’s speech at the African AIDS Summit in Abuja. She requests the assistance of the Arab countries on the following issues:

• soliciting the opinion of certain international organizations (WHO, the Red Cross and the Red Crescent) on the scientific and medical aspects of the case. It is quite obvious that the truth could not be established and, consequently, the court would not be able to pass a fair judgment without consideration of this opinion. The Foreign Minister reiterates that Bulgaria will not accept a judgment of the court which is not reasoned and corroborated by the relevant independent expert medical examinations. Such a judgment would be the result of political pressure exerted on the court and of political predetermination of the trial’s outcome;
• this insistence should be conveyed to the Libyan state leadership through the League of Arab States;
• the Bulgarian medical specialists working in the Arab World should not become the target of a campaign that would tarnish their fine reputation and professionalism.

Bulgaria confirms its political will to continue to pursue active relations with its traditional partners in the Arab World.

On behalf of the Arab diplomats, Moroccan Ambassador Abdesselam Alem says that it is very difficult for them to come up with an objective opinion on the issue of the six Bulgarian medics’ trial in the context of Colonel Qaddafi’s speech. He says the difficulty stems from the fact that they do not possess either the written text or a transcript of the speech as delivered. In his view, the only one that can take a stance on the issue is the Libyan Ambassador. According to Alem, the issue of the Bulgarian medics’ trial should not be allowed to go beyond the limits of its legal context and of bilateral relations and also should not be the subject of excessive media exposure. He expresses the opinion that the Libyan court is independent, which makes any intervention in its work difficult. Alem agrees with the Bulgarian position that Qaddafi’s speech may steer the trail into a new direction. The Moroccan Ambassador assures Mihailova that the Bulgarian request will be handed over to the Arab League and to the respective governments of Arab states. He expresses the hope that the trial will be concluded in the most favourable way and as soon as possible. The diplomat pledges that the Arab countries will do their best to render the necessary help and assistance.

The Libyan Ambassador reiterates his country’s position that the Libyan judiciary is completely independent. He notes that the Libyan State has no plans whatsoever to make the trial international unless other powers are involved. The diplomat repeats once again the thesis that Libya does not consider the Bulgarian State guilty or responsible in the matter of this case. Ambassador Farag Gibril al-Saklyul confirms Libya’s willingness to promote its relations with Bulgaria in all spheres.

Considering the rejection by the court of a number of motions by the defence, the Libyan Ambassador says that this is part of the work of the judiciary and that the Libyan Government cannot provide an official response as to the actions of the court. The diplomat stresses that the court is completely independent in its work and decisions and that Colonel Qaddafi’s speech will by no means influence its work. The Libyan Ambassador says that Colonel Qaddafi’s statement will in no way modify the substance of the case and that the trial will be transparent, objective and fair.

May 9, 2001. Foreign Minister Nadezhda Mihailova sends a letter to Egyptian Foreign Minister Amre Moussa, requesting his personal assistance for sending Arab League representatives to the trial in Tripoli, provided that the Libyan side gives its consent.

May 13, 2001. Tripoli. Court hearing. The trial is adjourned until June 2, 2001.

May 15, 2001. Geneva. A Bulgarian delegation, led by Deputy Health Minister Galin Kamenov, meets with a Libyan delegation, headed by Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Saad Mudjbir, within the 54^th Session of the World Health Assembly. The Bulgarians voice their fears about a possible politicization of the trial. They also cite evidence furnished by independent scholars and raise the issue of an international expert examination on the case. The head of the Libyan delegation assures the Bulgarians of the fairness of the trial and emphasizes that the Libyan court is independent.

May 16, 2001. Geneva. Deputy Health Minister Galin Kamenov addresses the 54^th Session of the World Health Assembly in Geneva. Kamenov quotes the opinions of Prof. Luc Montaigner and Prof. Luc Perrin, who treated the Libyan children, and who find that this is a case of nosocomial (in-hospital) infection rather than a deliberate infection. Dr Kamenov says that Bulgaria is concerned about the fate of its citizens who have been charged in connection with the case and that it will not tolerate a political trial. Kamenov says that if political arguments override scientific facts, the international medical community would be deprived of the opportunity to see the objective truth about the causes and tap the experience of the tragic accident for AIDS control and preventive care. In this connection, Bulgaria is ready to pursue further cooperation and exchange of experts in the field of microbiology, virology and parasitology in the spirit of the traditionally good relations between the two countries. In conclusion, Bulgaria calls on the World Health Organization, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS to assist the conduct of an expert examination of the case at the Benghazi Hospital and called on its Libyan partners to join this insistence.

May 17, 2001. Brussels. Dr Tonka Vurleva, national expert at the Health Ministry and national AIDS coordinator, attends a symposium in Brussels on Consequences of AIDS in the Least Developed Countries. In Brussels Vurleva stresses the need for an independent international expert examination on the case so as to identify the objective truth about the cause and spread of the infection in Benghazi.

May 30, 2001. Nasya Nenova’s husband, Ivan Nenov, and Valya Chervenyashka’s daughter, Antoaneta Ouzounova, receive entry visas for Libya, along with nine reporters. Journalists of the dailies Troud, 24 Chassa and Sega are denied visas.

May 22, 2001. Moscow. Bulgarian Ambassador to Moscow Iliyan Vassilev meets Academician Vadim Pokrovsky, head of the Russian Federal Centre for AIDS Prevention and Control. Pokrovsky familiarizes Vassilev with the spread of AIDS in a hospital in Kalmykia in 1998 and says that the same breach of the hospital procedure most probably occurred in Benghazi. The Russian Academician dismisses as absurd the allegations of intentional infection and offers his assistance as a scholar and expert in identifying the actual causes of the mass infection so that such a tragedy would not happen again. Pokrovsky says that he is ready to Bulgaria in every possible way to defend its health professionals, including a conduct of the expert examination by his team if the Libyan side agrees. Vassilev also meets with Aleksandr Leonardovich Ginsberg, Director of the Institute of Immunology and Virology with the Russian Academy of Sciences. Ginsberg expresses his readiness to assist the Bulgarian side with expertise, information for the press, participation in a possible international expert examination or in any other way that the Bulgarian side sees fit.

May 30, 2001. Health Minister Ilko Semerdjiev meets with the ambassadors of Arab countries in Sofia. Participants in the meeting are briefed on certain medical aspects of the AIDS infection in the hospital in Benghazi. Attending the meeting are leading Bulgarian experts on AIDS. Libyan Ambassador Farag Gibril al-Saklyul says that the Libyan side is in possession of the two reports of the Paris- and Geneva-based professors, which have been translated and perused. The diplomat expresses the hope that the Bulgarian defendants will be acquitted if they are not guilty.

June 2, 2001. Tripoli. Court hearing. Case No. 44 of 1999 is proceeded with on the merits.

June 3, 2001. Libya calls on the Bulgarian authorities not to interfere in the trial of the six Bulgarian medics, Agence France-Presse reports. Libyan Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassuna al-Shaush tells the AFP that Tripoli was "surprised by the Bulgarian authorities' statements that may impede the development of the trial." Al-Shaush says that Libyan justice has provided the defendants “with all guarantees of a fair trial and that it is wrong to make irresponsible statements.” The Libyan Foreign Ministry Spokesman is apparently referring to a statement by Prime Minister Ivan Kostov that "if the Bulgarian medics in Libya have been tortured, this trial is neither just nor fair.” Kostov also said that it has now become clear in what a difficult situation the Cabinet has worked to defend the six Bulgarian health professionals.

June 4, 2001. Deputy Foreign Minister Marin Raikov delivers a declaration in connection with a statement made by Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister and Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassuna al-Shaush. The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry declaration says that:

1. The Spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Libya has no reason to be surprised by the fact that the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria has reacted to published statements by Bulgarian citizens who categorically declared that they had 'confessed' under torture. The Bulgarian side has reacted by numerous notes and verbally at various levels to information about such arbitrary treatment received so far. It is absurd to expect that the Prime Minister would not defend the Bulgarian citizens' rights. It is clear to everybody that extraction of self-confessions by torture makes the trial unjust and unfair.
2. The Libyan Foreign Ministry Spokesman's statement that the Bulgarian Prime Minister's declaration may affect the trial itself shows that this declaration came just in time. We expect it to have a positive, sobering effect. Bulgaria will not tolerate political arbitrariness against the six citizens of this country.
3. In the light of the latest developments and within the context of our good relations with the esteemed Libyan Jamahiriya, we expect appropriate action to be taken against the perpetrators of the coercion against the Bulgarian citizens.

June 16, 2001. The ambassadors of the European "Troika" in Tripoli hand the Libyan Foreign Ministry a memorandum concerning the respect for human rights in connection with the case of the six Bulgarian health professionals. The memorandum contains the following elements recommended by the EU Presidency:

- a fair and open trial must be held before a competent independent court in compliance with human rights standards;
- everybody should be equal before the law, and all defendants should be treated equally regardless of their nationality;
- all defendants have the right to sufficient time and conditions to prepare their defence, including an independent medical expert examination;
- the use of torture and other unlawful methods is condemned.

The Belgian Ambassador in Tripoli has been instructed to liaise closely with the Bulgarian Ambassador during the trial.

June 16-17, 2001. Tripoli. Court hearing. Delivery of judgment in the case scheduled for September 22, 2001.

June 26, 2001. Addressing Round Table 2 on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, organized within the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, Bulgaria's Permanent Representative to the UN Stefan Tafrov discusses, among other things, the case at the Benghazi Children's Hospital. Even though he figures on the preliminary list of participants, a Libyan representative does not attend the discussion. Libya's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN makes a statement at a plenary meeting of the Special Session. The statement is made in Arabic and is not circulated. The English and the French versions diverge, but the following appears on record: "in this connection I would like to point to the tragic case of 400 Libyan children who have become victim of this disease. Part of them are already dead. In the course of two years justice has been looking into this odious crime against children deliberately injected with the HIV virus. Now we are at a loss what to do with the perpetrators of the crime..."

Bulgaria is not mentioned in the statement. The Libyan delegation does not provide an official text of the statement, even though it is requested by the Bulgarian delegation.

June 26, 2001. Tokyo. The Bulgarian Embassy in Tokyo requests Japan's assistance to support the demands for conduct of a fair and objective trial.

June 26, 2001. The Embassy in Tripoli receives information that Brussels has instructed the EU ambassadors in Tripoli to prepare a new official demarche, this time to Libyan Foreign Minister Abd al-Rahman Shalgam. The document must stress the human rights violations committed by the Libyan side and will in practice repeat the contents of the memorandum that has been handed earlier. The European ambassadors intend to extend a clear message to Libya about the EU's serious concern about the outcome of the trial and, in this context, to note that this may be a test for Libya's real intentions for future cooperation with the EU and its institution. As to the right time for presentation of the demarche, it is pointed out that the earlier before September 22 this is done, the more effective the demarche would be, since delivery of sentences at first instance is expected on that date.

July 24, 2001. Solomon Passy tells his first news conference in his capacity as foreign minister that the successful settlement of the case of the accused Bulgarian medical workers in Libya is a main priority of the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry. "I am going to act discreetly about the trial in Libya," Passy says.

July 25, 2001. The Secretary of the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation of Libya Abd al-Rahman Shalgam rejects any intervention in the trial of the six Bulgarians charged with spreading the HIV virus in a Libyan hospital, the Agence France-Presse reports from Tripoli.

"Only Libyan justice is competent to pronounce, and we reject any intervention in its proceedings," Shalgam told AFP. He stressed that the statements of senior Bulgarian officials "will not affect at all the course of this case" and that justice "will show no leniency at all" in the matter. Neither the agency nor the Libyan Minister, however, specify the statements to which reference is made.

August 1, 2001. The Interdepartmental Commission on the trial of the Bulgarian medical workers in Libya holds a meeting chaired by Justice Minister Anton Stankov, Foreign Minister Solomon Passy and Health Minister Bozhidar Finkov. The participants take a decision on the composition of the Commission in view of the changes following the election of the new government.
The steps taken so far to defend the rights and interests of the Bulgarian citizens detained in Libya are discussed. It is decided to elaborate further moves in this direction, based on forecasts for the outcome of the trial of the six Bulgarians in the court of first instance.

August 2, 2001. Sofia. In his first statement on the trial in Tripoli, newly appointed Justice Minister Anton Stankov says he is not optimistic about the outcome of the trial because the charges are very serious. (The new government was elected by the National Assembly on July 24.) Stankov expresses the Intergovernmental CommissionТs conviction that the Bulgarians are innocent on one count: involvement in a plot against the Libyan State. "This is simply absurd, Bulgaria and Libya have a long tradition of good relations, we are confident that this charge is untenable."

Asked if the Libyan court may impose the death penalty, Stankov says: "The charges brought against them carry the death penalty, that is why forecasts for the trial include this as well."

Asked if the other charges are well-founded, Stankov says the Libyan court alone can pronounce on this. "Our position is that we ought to believe in Libyan justice," he says.

The Interdepartmental Commission decides to meet on a weekly basis until December 22, the date set for the next hearing. "Basically we will discuss a position for action by the Bulgarian side after December 22. We will consider procedural possibilities to appeal the sentences. They mostly concern the defence, namely lawyer Sheitanov, whom we would like to furnish with an expert opinion," Stankov says.

The Commission has decided to meet with the relatives of the accused.

Asked if the Bulgarian side has done everything possible to ensure an unbiased trial, Stankov answers in the affirmative. "Defence lawyers have been retained, money has been allocated for their participation, is there anything more that could have been done? The right to defence, insofar as it depended on the Bulgarian defence, was ensured, they were given a chance to choose a defence counsel, his travel expenses are covered by the State," he says.

The justice minister calls on the media to show a stronger sense of national responsibility and patriotism in covering the trial. "Please show moderation, you must realize the trial coverage affects those six medical workers, as well as another 6,000 Bulgarians who work there," Stankov says.

September 1-2, 2001. National Assembly Chairman Ognyan Gerdjikov visits Libya for the celebrations of its National Day. He holds a brief meeting with Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi.

The Bulgarian delegation meets with Engineer Seif al-Islam al-Qaddafi, President of the Qaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, the Libyan leader's son. Gerdjikov says on his return he committed to act as an observer of the trial.

Gerdjikov and the Bulgarian delegation hold a half-hour meeting with the accused Bulgarians.

September 12, 2001. The living conditions of the six Bulgarian medical workers have been improved, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Elena Poptodorova says.

Meeting with the Bulgarian delegation led by National Assembly Chairman Ognyan Gerdjikov in early September, the accused nurses ask to be moved to a separate cell. Their request has been granted, Poptodorova says.

September 22, 2001. Foreign Minister Solomon Passy says it is good news that the trial of the Bulgarian medical workers has been adjourned. "We have signs that a clear and transparent trial is being prepared and I hope that on December 22 we will manage to achieve what we all dream of," Passy says.

The foreign minister declines to comment the progress of the trial, saying this is a delicate issue and any superfluous word might hamper the trial. He gives assurances that the Foreign Ministry is taking all the necessary steps to defend the Bulgarians.

The Interdepartmental Commission on the trial in Libya views the hearing scheduled for December 22 as a sign that greater precision and objectivity are being sought in considering all aspects of the case. "I hope the court will make a fair and wise decision on the outcome of the trial which is a cause for concern to the accused, their relatives and the whole Bulgarian public," the Commission says in a statement.

"We appreciate the opportunity given by the Libyan side to representatives of 11 diplomatic missions of Western Europe and North America and a UN representative and international NGOs in Tripoli to be allowed into the courtroom. To us this act signals readiness to ensure a fair and transparent trial, as well as commitment of the international community to Bulgaria and the fate of its citizens," the statement also says.

September 23, 2001. Tripoli. The Bulgarian medics standing trial in Libya meet with their relatives, who have arrived to attend the court hearing at which judgment was expected to be delivered.

October 24, 2001. Foreign Minister Solomon Passy meets with relatives of the accused Bulgarians. Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Elena Poptodorova says the meeting is part of the MinistryТs overall commitment to the trial of the six medical workers.

December 19-22, 2001. Tripoli. Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy pays an official visit to Libya at the invitation of his Libyan counterpart Abdel Rahman Mohammed Shalqum. The two meet and discuss the state of bilateral relations. Next, Passy confers with Deputy Foreign Minister Saad Mujber, who chairs the Joint Bulgarian-Libyan Cooperation Commission, and with Justice and Public Security Minister Mohamed Ali al-Masirati. Until early September 2001, Al-Masirati headed the People's Prosecution Bureau, which demanded death sentences for the six Bulgarian medical professionals. On the evening before the court hearing, the Bulgarian Foreign Minister has dinner with Gaddafi International Foundation President Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi. A representative of the Foundation attends the December 22 court hearing. After his meeting with Saif al-Islam, Passy says that the Foundation finds unclear points in the prosecution case against the Bulgarian medics and has put questions to the judiciary which it believes must be clarified. On the following day, Agence France-Presse quotes Saif al-Islam as saying that he hopes the court will conclude that the Libyan children's HIV infection was a medical mistake and not a premeditated act.

Passy's visit to Tripoli culminates in a session with the leader of the Libyan Revolution, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The Libyan leader rarely if ever receives visiting foreign ministers. Gaddafi tells his guest that he knows well Bulgaria and the performance of the Bulgarians who have been working in Libya for decades and is amazed that Bulgarians could have done this.

During his visit to Tripoli, Solomon Passy meets with the Bulgarian defendants who leave the Judaida Prison and talk for more than an hour and a half on a lawn with Passy and with their relatives who have arrived from Bulgaria: Nassya Nenova's husband Dr Ivan Nenov and Valentina Siropoulo's sister-in-law Tsvetanka Siropoulo.

2002

February 4, 2002. Tripoli. The six Bulgarian medical professionals are transferred from the Judaida Prison to a self-contained house in a guarded area. The Bulgarians will have a living room, four rooms, a kitchen, bathrooms and a yard at their disposal. Dr Zdravko Georgiev and his wife, nurse Kristiyana Vulcheva, are accommodated together. The decision on the transfer is announced on February 5 by Foreign Minister Solomon Passy in Brussels, where he accompanies visiting President Georgi Purvanov.

The relaxation of the defendants' custody conditions results from the active efforts of the Gaddafi International Foundation and personally of its President, Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, according to the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry.

February 17, 2002. The Libyan PeopleТs Court decided that there was not enough evidence to substantiate the accusations that the Bulgarians had been conspiring against the Libyan State, and returned the case back to the prosecution.

The Court dismissed the conspiracy claims of the prosecution as "a fabricated reading" and "conclusions removed from the context" and said that they see no evidence of a criminal intention in the defendants for action to undermine the state security.

According to the medics' Libyan defender Osman Bizanti, the prosecuting authorities that take over the case from now on would move a new indictment at an ordinary criminal court within a couple of months.

Bulgarian state leaders, politicians and lawyers were unanimous that the decision of the court was an encouraging piece of news and a good sign. According to President Georgi Purvanov, it is an expression of the Libyan side's good will to establish the truth.

National Assembly Chairman Ognyan Gerdjikov hopes that since the case will be tried by an ordinary court, all charges carrying a death penalty upon conviction would be dropped.

In a statement released after the latest development on the trial was made public, the Government said that the decision "will hopefully result in clarifying all circumstances in the case and reaching a just judgment" in this complex case.

Foreign Minister Solomon Passy said that he had called the chairman of the Gaddafi International Foundation, Seif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, to thank him for his role as an observer at the trial.

March 22, 2002. The Bulgarian medics submitted declarations saying they no longer wished to be represented by Bulgarian lawyer Vladimir Sheitanov.

They named Plamen Yalnuzov as their new lawyer. Yalnuzov received their written authorization to represent them on Libya territory and to defend their rights and interests until all legal proceedings against them are completed. Yalnuzov is a member of the interdepartmental committee formed in connection with the trial.

March 26, 2002. French AIDs expert Luc Montaigner was recruited as an expert in the trial. The news was announced by Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passi following a conversation over the phone with Seif al-Islam al-Qaddafi, the President of the Qaddafi Foundation.

Prof. Montaigner of the Pasteur Institute in Paris was the first to announce HIV as the cause of AIDS in an article in 1983.

The 69-year-old scholar has been decorated with many awards. He is a Chevalier and Commandeur of the National Order of the Legion of Honor, France's highest national order.

May 3-5, 2002. A conversation between Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy and Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Sirte centres on the trial of the six Bulgarian medical workers. It emerges that Gaddafi personally follows the progress of the case, that he is familiar with it in detail and finds that it is heading in the right direction.

Passy's second meeting with Gaddafi in four months is preceded by a visit to the infectious diseases hospital in Benghazi where Libyan children infected with AIDS are treated, and to the city's cemetery where 37 such children have been buried. Parents of infected children give Passy a list showing that 413 children were infected with HIV in the children's hospital in Benghazi in 1997-98.

The trial of the six Bulgarians is also the focus of Passy's talks with his Libyan counterpart Abd al-Rahman Shalgam and with Minister of Justice and Public Security Mohamed Ali Al-Masirati.

June 3, 2002. First sitting of the Arraignment Chamber in Benghazi actually opening criminal court proceedings. At the sitting the Tripoli prosecution delivered the case records to the judge and formulated the previously pressed charges excluding the one of conspiring against the Libyan State.

The Bulgarian medics are charged with intentionally infecting 393 Libyan children with AIDS, causing an AIDS epidemic at the Al Fatih Hospital in Benghazi, engaging in illicit sexual relationships, distilling alcohol, drinking alcohol in public places and illegally transacting in foreign currency. The six Bulgarian medical professionals pleaded not guilty to the charges and declared that some of their confessions had been extracted under duress. Their Palestinian co-defendant Ashraf al-Hadjudj also retracted his confessions. The lawyer of the families of the infected children presented a claim for material indemnification of the victims.

The Judge scheduled the next hearing of the Chamber for July 15.

June 12, 2002. The chairman of the Arraignment Chamber orders the prosecution office in Tripoli to investigate from scratch the case against the six Bulgarians and carry out new interrogations.

June 13, 2002. The Tripoli prosecution starts questioning anew the defendants. The first to be interrogated is Palestinian Ashraf al-Hadjudj. Al-Hadjudj's initial confessions served as the basis for the accusations against the Bulgarians.

June 19, 2002. The six Bulgarian medics are examined by a forensic doctor at the Central University Hospital of Tripoli to establish if they have been tortured during interrogations in the initial stage of the case.

June 19 - 21, 2002. Gaddafi Foundation Executive Director Saleh Abdoul Salam Saleh and Juma Atiga, chairman of the Human Rights Association with the Gaddafi Foundation and observer of the trial, arrive in Bulgaria. They meet with Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, Justice Minister Anton Stankov, MPs and Bulgarian Red Cross Chairman Hristo Grigorov. Saleh hands Bulgarian Ambassador in Tripoli Lyudmil Spassov a detailed report on the case.

June 21, 2002. In a letter to lawyer Plamen Yalnuzov the six Bulgarian medics call on the Bulgarian media for restraint in the coverage of the trial which enters its decisive stage.

June 24, 2002. Seif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, head of the Gaddafi Foundation and son of Libyan state leader Muammar Gaddafi, tells BBC radio that the infection of Libyan children with the HIV-virus was caused by negligence and not by a conspiracy. An investigation carried out by the Gaddafi Foundation found that new HIV cases were diagnosed after the arrest of the Bulgarian medical workers. In Seif al-Islam's words, it shows that there are irregularities in the hospital management, negligence and lax discipline, which indirectly caused the tragedy. These conclusions are contained in a report of the Foundation, about which the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry was informed.

June 25, 2002. Nassya Nenova was the first of the six Bulgarians to be questioned additionally, as ordered by the Arraignment Chamber in Benghazi. The rest of the medics were questioned later on.

July 15, 2002. Second sitting of Benghazi Arraignment Chamber. The judge postpones for August 5 the decision on whether to order a trial before the criminal court.

The sitting is held amidst extraordinary security. Relatives of children who have died of AIDS gather in front of the building; two are admitted to the court room

August 5, 2002. Third siting of the Arraignment Chamber. Prosecutor hands the Arraignment Chamber Chairman the documentation on the interrogations of Libyan police officers and the medical experts' findings on whether the Bulgarian medics have been tortured in the early stage of the trial.

The sitting is attended by lawyer Plamen Yalnuzov and Miss Hanan Alaueti, who represents lawyer Bizanti. The accused are not present. The defence requests quick access to the documents handed by the prosecutor in order to prepare its case. The next sitting is scheduled for August 19. The Arraignment Chamber orders that the detained Bulgarian medics be returned their personal belongings.

August 26, 2002. The Arraignment Chamber in Benghazi decides to refer Case 213/2002 to a criminal court and put the charges against the six Bulgarian medics into four groups: HIV infection, foreign currency offences, breach of the moral standards, and distillation and use of alcohol.

The Chamber also decides to continue the remand in custody of the Bulgarians and their Palestinian co-defendant. It rules that the Libyan officials, who conducted the investigation of the accused Bulgarian citizens, will be indicted.

None of the 25 defendants is present at the delivery of the ruling. Lawyer Hanan al-Weiti of the law office of the Bulgarians' Libyan defence lawyer Osman Bizanti and two lawyers defending the accused Libiyans are in the courtroom, along with the Bulgarian Consul in Benghazi, Emil Manolov, and Counsellor Roumen Petrov of the Embassy in Tripoli.

2003

This could happen today or tomorrow, it happened not because of those people, it continued after they had been in the hospital, Seif al-Islam said, answering a question about the facts established by the Foundation while monitoring the case.

It started out as an odd, vague case, a suspicion arose of some plot against the Libyan people, involving other countries. The Foundation's intervention brought to light many facts until then unknown in this tragedy for the Libyans, Saif al-Islam said, adding that now there was talk of nothing more than negligence, not of secret missions or intentional actions.

The Bulgarian medical workers will be tried by the Libyan court under Libyan law, Saif al-Islam said, adding that this was not his responsibility. The Foundation achieved two important things: the charge of plotting was dropped and it was established that some persons coerced the detainees into confessing that they had participated in a plot. Those people themselves are now accused and jailed, Saif al-Islam said. The best specialists, court experts, were invited and found that it was a matter of negligence and poor organization at the hospital, of lack of proper care, which led to the tragedy.

Saif al-Islam said the medical workers are responsible because they were on the hospital staff. He talked to his father, who said there had been chaos in the hospital, and some people brought up the charge of plotting to cover up their own omissions.

The General People's Congress (the Libyan Parliament) holds a sitting.

June 11, 2003. Nurse Maria Zasheva returns to Sofia. Back with a direct flight from Tripoli, she goes to meet Solomon Passy together with husband Zhan and daughter Natalia. Bulgarian Maria Ilieva Zasheva works as a nurse in the paediatric ward of Avicena Hospital in Sirte. She is questioned several times in 2000 along with four Filipino nurses. Her passport is withheld on May 15, 2000.
On January 21, 2001, the Foreign Ministry gives urgent instructions to the Bulgarian ambassador to Tripoli that Zasheva must be contacted and immediately taken to Tripoli, where she is to stay at the Embassy and wait for her documents to be returned by the Libyan side.

June 14, 2003. Libyan Prime Minister Mubarak al-Shamikh is dismissed and replaced by then Economy and Trade Minister Shukri Muhammad Ghanim, the General People's Congress (the Libyan Parliament) says after its sitting.

June 20, 2003. Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha cables congratulations to Shukri Muhammad Ghanim, the newly appointed Secretary of the General People's Committee (the Libyan Prime Minister).

"On this pleasant occasion, let me assure you that the government of the Republic of Bulgaria would like to further develop and deepen the friendship and cooperation between the two countries," Saxe-Coburg-Gotha says.

June 23, 2003. Foreign Minister Solomon Passy expresses hope that a date for the trial of the Bulgarian medical workers in Libya will be scheduled by the year's end. Passy is in London, where he asks Saif al-Islam that the report by Luc Montagnier and Vittorio Colizzi be admitted in evidence by the Libyan side and Libyan justice because it is of key importance and may altogether change the course of the trial.

June 26, 2003. Bulgaria's main aim is to have the report by professors Luc Montagnier and Vittorio Colizzi admitted in evidence in the trial of the Bulgarian medical workers in Libya, Foreign Minister Solomon Passy says.

Asked if the trial in Libya has been put on hold, Passy answers in the negative and says that Saif al-Islam has assured him that the Libyan leadership wants the case to be settled as soon as possible.

July 2, 2003. Preliminary information received via unofficial channels shows that July 8 has been set as the date for a hearing of Case No. 213/2002 of the six Bulgarian medical workers in Libya, Passy says.

July 6, 2003. Emil Manolov, Bulgaria's Consul in Benghazi, receives a verbal note from the Libyan authorities informing him that the Criminal Court in Benghazi will hold an open hearing on July 8, i.e. the Bulgarian media will be able to cover it. On that day the six Bulgarians are taken from Tripoli to Benghazi.

July 8, 2003. At its first hearing the Criminal Court in Benghazi proceeds with Case No. 213/2002. It decides that the next hearing will be held in Benghazi on August 4 and rejects Bulgarian lawyer Plamen Yalnuzov's request that the defendants be released on the recognizance of the Bulgarian Government as certified in a letter by the Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli.

During the one-hour session the court hears statements by the defence lawyers of the Bulgarians and the other defendants (one Palestinian and nine Libyans).

Yalnuzov asks that the report by AIDS experts Luc Montagnier and Vittorio Colizzi be admitted in evidence.

Yalnuzov says that a thorough scientific evaluation is essential for the court to establish the truth about the tragedy, which caused suffering both to the infected children's families and to the Bulgarian defendants, "who became victims of arbitrary and violent treatment by the police". He urges the court to release the Bulgarians on the recognizance of the Bulgarian authorities, which guarantee that the defendants will appear in court during the trial.

The two prosecutors insist that the Bulgarians' remand in custody should be continued, and the court grants their request.

The plaintiffs' lawyer files a claim for 15 million Libyan dinars in compensation. The claim is submitted to the defence lawyers.

The hearing in Benghazi takes place amid tight security measures in the suburban area, with numerous policemen with assault rifles and pistols guarding the building.

Several relatives of infected children are among the few persons not directly involved in the proceedings who are admitted in the courtroom. The six Bulgarian defendants sit behind bars in a partitioned section of the room. Sitting at the far end of the room are about a dozen Libyans, who were found guilty by the Arraignment
Chamber in Benghazi a year earlier of putting the Bulgarians under duress while questioning them during the preliminary investigation.

Italy's Consul General in Benghazi, Giovanni Pirello, attends the hearing as an observer representing both his country and the EU, as Italy is holding the rotating EU Presidency.

In front of the courtroom near Al-Kawafiyah Prison in Benghazi, members of the committee of relatives of infected children talk to the Bulgarian media and send a message about their tragedy to the Bulgarian people, saying that they want the truth to be established, regardless of who caused the infection.

July 10, 2003. It is not clear whether the Bulgarians will be brought back to the guarded building in Tripoli before the August 4 of the Benghazi court. The Bulgarian Consul in Benghazi Emil Manolov has no information about the possible return of the Bulgarians to Tripoli. The Qaddafi Foundation observer on the case, Djuma Atiga, denies comment with the explanation that he is not aware of the developments.

July 13, 2003. Justice Minister Anton Stankov says that several days earlier he has received a letter from his Libyan counterpart Mohamed Ali al-Masirati pledging readiness for assistance and cooperation with regards to the Bulgarians' case. The message underscores that the decision on the case will be taken by the court.

July 14, 2003. The Bulgarian Consul in Benghazi Emil Manolov and a diplomat of the Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli meet the Bulgarian medics, Foreign Minister Solomon Passy says. The six Bulgarians are held in a guarded building of the Al-Kawafiyah Prison.

The parents of one of the HIV-infected children have filed at the July 8 court hearing a civil claim for 10.7 million dollars, or 15 million Libyan dinars, the Foreign Ministry says.

July 16, 2003. Foreign Minister Solomon Passy says he has talked on the phone with Saif al-Islam to inform him of the situation of the six Bulgarians. Saif al-Islam has been updated on the latest developments. Reacting to a "Monitor" story of July 15 headlined "Passy Keeps Mum about Libyan Claim for $4.5 Bln", the Foreign Ministry says that no claim for 4.5 billion dollars has been made at the July 8 hearing of Case No. 213/2002. A claim for 10.7 million dollars is presented to the Bulgarians' lawyer Plamen Yalnuzov, who finds it inappropriate to publish the full text. The Foreign Ministry has nothing to do with this decision of lawyer Yalnuzov, the Ministry said in the News/FAQ section of its website.

July 19, 2003. Vittorio Colizzi tells a Bulgarian radio station he is ready to appear in a Libyan court and testify in favour of the Bulgarian medical workers, saying that they are not guilty of infecting Libyan children in the Benghazi hospital with AIDS. The Qaddafi Foundation reports suspicious deaths of prisoners in Libya and calls for a probe into the causes. It urges the Justice Ministry to hold liable and punish the persons involved in the crimes. The Foundation says it should be found out if cause of death is mistreatment or torture during the prisoners' interrogation.

July 20, 2003. "It is our immediate aim to have the report by professors Luc Montagnier and Vittorio Colizzi admitted in evidence in the case of the six Bulgarian medics in Libya," Foreign Minister Passy says. "What is more, I am confident that if the two world famous professors are invited by the court, the truth will be established more quickly and categorically," Passy says.

July 22, 2003. The Bulgarian side contacts Prof. Colizzi, who officially accepts to testify in the Libyan court if summoned as a witness in the case of the Bulgarian medics within the framework of the report drawn up by him and Prof. Luc Montagnier, Passy says.

August 4, 2003. At its second hearing, the Criminal Court in Benghazi decides to call professors Luc Montagnier and Vittorio Colizzi as witnesses in Case No. 213/2002 at the next hearing on September 3. Passy says the court decision to admit professors Montagnier and Colizzi as witnesses is a positive step to a just outcome of the case in the near future. "I would compare this move to the decision of the Libyan authorities of over a year ago to transfer the case from the military tribunal to a civilian court," Passy says.

August 5, 2003. Prof. George Joffe of the Centre for International Studies, Cambridge, comments on the BBC that the Libyan government is hardly likely to admit it is responsible for the outbreak of the AIDS infection in the children's hospital in Benghazi. Prof. Joffe says the Libyan authorities are probably ready to accept a possible court decision that the accused Bulgarian medics are not guilty on this count. In this case the authorities will find another explanation, according to Prof. Joffe.

Prof. Joffe comments that since the accused are not only Bulgarians, but Palestinians and Libyans as well, there may be another trial in which the Bulgarians will not stand accused. The Libyan authorities are well aware of serious omissions in public services, which they will try to attribute to the sanctions against Libya. In fact, the oil-rich country is in decline which leads to such incidents, Joffe says.

Bulgaria, that the trial will be fair.

Prof. Joffe says this is partly due to Saif al-Islam, Muammar Qaddafi's son, who has shown that he wants a fair trial for the Bulgarians as soon as possible. Prof. Joffe says it is "an interesting fact" that the Libyan court is ready to hear out professors Montagnier and Colizzi, who hold that the Bulgarian medical workers could not have infected the children in any way.

George Joffe says the Libyan side is aware that there are other explanations for the infection, given the standard of hospital hygiene and the problems Libya has encountered in creating a modern healthcare system.

They may realize that the threats against the Bulgarian medics are probably used as a smokescreen for the hospitals' problems, which are of a different nature, Prof. Joffe says.

September 3, 2003. Prof. Luc Montagnier and Prof. Vittorio Colizzi testify in Court as witnesses for the defence. They say that the HIV epidemic in the children's hospital in the Libyan city of Benghazi predated the arrival of the Bulgarian medics to the hospital and it is impossible to establish the manner of infection.

At the court hearing Prof. Montagnier is asked about the scientific facts underlying the case of the prosecution and the defence: for presence or absence of intention in the origin of the HIV epidemic in the Benghazi children's hospital Al Fateh in 1998.

According to Prof. Montagnier, the virus identified in the 393 children in the hospital is of a rare type spread mainly in Western Africa but also found in the rest of the continent. The outbreak was probably started by an infected child admitted for treatment at the hospital. Injection was not the only possible way of infection, and any other manipulation involving penetration of the skin, or even multiple use of the same oxygen mask, could have done that. According to Prof. Montagnier and Prof. Colizzi, it is impossible to establish the manner of infection - intentional, unintentional, or another - or the exact time it happened.

They also say that it is impossible to establish whether a child got the infection from a HIV-positive mother, who may or may not have had any symptoms, or whether the child passed on the virus to the healthy mother.

Prof. Montagnier is positive that the epidemic at the hospital had started about a year before the Bulgarian nurses were hired. He said he was familiar with the case before his first visit to Libya in 1999 as he was in the process of studying the cases of hundreds of HIV-positive children that were being examined or treated in hospitals in Switzerland, France and Italy. At the time he was working on these cases, some of the children did not have the symptoms as the incubation period of the virus is about 10 years.

Answering questions by the judge, the prosecution and the defence, Prof. Montagnier says that it is possible to conserve the virus and then reactivate it if it has been held in plasma. Depending on the way of storing it, it can be kept active between two and several days. He says he is not aware of the existence of technical capacity in Libya for monitoring such storage of the virus, at the time of the children's hospital epidemic or now.

According to Prof. Montagnier, the health authorities in Libya and the management of the Benghazi hospital showed serious concern over the infection during his first visit there. He stresses that back then they had no idea of the cause of the spreading epidemic.

The prosecution says that while the case records speak of 393 infected children, their real number is 426.

It is a mysterious case, says Prof. Montagnier. The Benghazi hospital had two HIV-positive nurses against a total of 50 diagnosed with the virus worldwide. It is known for a fact that some of the infected children had not been treated by the infected nurses, and also that some of the children had got the virus before the Bulgarian nurses came to the hospital.

Answering a question by the Bulgarians' defence, he also says that the infection could have started outside the hospital ward where the Bulgarians were working.

Prof. Colizzi reiterates the main points in Prof. Montagnier's testimony.

The prosecution has summoned two Libyan experts to the hearing: Awad Abudjadja of the Libyan national committee on AIDS and Busha Allo, head of the infectious diseases ward of the Al Jamahiriya hospital in Tripoli. The two testify before the European researchers and underscor that the virus load in the blood of the infected children was too high, implying that there has been intention in the infection.

September 8, 2003. The prosecutors in the trial against six Bulgarian medics want the death penalty for the defendants. In their closing speeches at the September 8 hearing of the Benghazi court, the fourth on this case, the two prosecutors insist that there is strong evidence of intention in the infection of the children in the Benghazi children's hospital, for which the five Bulgarian nurses and one doctor, and a Palestinian doctor are responsible and deserve the death penalty. Nine Libyan doctors who are also charged on this case, face 10 years in prison upon conviction.

The lawyer in a civil suit against the Bulgarians wants the Libyan dinar equivalent of 11.5 million euros in compensation for each infected child. This lawyer is also a father of one of the HIV-positive children.

After nearly three hours, during which they heard the two prosecutors and two lawyers of the plaintiffs in the civil suit, the court adjourns until September 22. The prosecutors ask that the case splits in two, so that nine Libyan officers charged with violent treatment of the Bulgarian defendants during a preliminary proceeding, can get a separate trial.

The prosecutors' case for a death penalty is fully based on the confessions one of the accused Bulgarian nurses, Nassya Nenova, made during the investigation. Nenova admitted to injecting children with contaminated products she had got from the Palestinian doctor, being unaware that they contained HIV and that in this way she was getting involved in tests of a new drug. Nenova withdrew her confession before the Libyan People's Court in 2001 and said they were extracted under duress. Libyan law disregards confessions extracted with violence.

The prosecutors also claim that another defendant, nurse Kristiana Vulcheva, acted as a mastermind in the scheme that involved the other five Bulgarians and the Palestinian, and cited transcripts of her bank accounts. They say she had performed the money transfers paying the other defendants for their part in the scheme.

According to the prosecutors, Vulcheva had a luxury lifestyle and speaks Arabic, which they cited as further proof of her guilt. The piece of material evidence which they said calls for the death penalty are 5 containers of plasma protein found to contain 4 varieties of the HIV virus. Details on that are allegedly described in a report by Awad Abudadjadja, a coordinator of the Libyan national committee on AIDS, who testified at the September 3 hearing.

The lawyer of the plaintiffs in the civil suit urges the court to disregard a report by HIV experts Luc Montagnier and Vittorio Colizzi on the case, on grounds of being incomplete.

The presentation of the prosecution arguments and this part of the claim of the plaintiffs' lawyers causes the court to break and then to announce its adjournment until September 22.

As part of its September 8 hearing, the court again questions some of the defendants behind closed doors. They are asked questions connected with the charge for violation of Libyan traditions.

September 22, 2003. Hearing of the Benghazi Criminal Court. The lawyers of six Bulgarian medics plead that the defendants are not guilty on the counts which carry the death penalty.

September 28, 2003. The Court postpones until October 13 a hearing initially scheduled for September 29, because a member of the court panel is taken ill.

October 13, 2003. The Court hears defence statements. The lawyers of the Libyan medical officers charged in the case speak for six hours, followed by the lawyers who represent the six Bulgarians and a Palestinian doctor, and those representing nine Libyan officers charged with using violence against the Bulgarian defendants.

A lawyer employed for the civil claim filed by parents of AIDS-infected Libyan children, lodges a new claim on behalf of four families. The amount of the new claim is 8 million Libyan dinars.

The Palestinian doctor's lawyer speaks in support of theses put forward by the Bulgarian defence on September 22.

Two of the lawyers representing the Libyan medical officers argue that scientific evidence exists showing that the charges against their clients are groundless.

After a 30-minute break, the hearing proceeds with a statement by the Bulgarians' lawyer Plamen Yalnuzov who questions the validity of the theses which had been put forward during the previous hearing, on September 22, to support the civil claim.

Yalnuzov once again insists that AIDS tests in Libya have been inadequate until the autumn of 1999, and even later tests have been ineffective in establishing the precise moment when a person was infected with AIDS. According to him, the conclusions presented by a Libyan expert testifying in favour of the prosecution have been drawn before the test samples were examined in a duly equipped laboratory outside Libya.

Reacting to prosecution claims that a report compiled by professors Luc Montagnier and Vittorio Colizzi should be dismissed, Yalnuzov says the conclusions drawn by the two experts concerning the cause of the infection outbreak at Al Fatih Hospital in Benghazi are based on tests conducted at four European clinics in 1999 and 2000. There is evidence showing that a child was infected with AIDS as early as in 1994 and then received medical treatment at the hospital where the infection outbreak was detected in 1998, Yalnuzov says.

Lawyer Abdulla Mahmoud al-Magrebi, who works on the civil claim, insists that the cause of the epidemic outbreak should be identified, regardless of whether the responsibility rests with Bulgarians, Palestinians, or Libyans.

The lawyers of the Libyan officers who have been accused of using violence against some of the Bulgarian defendants, request an adjournment of the trial in order to be able to prepare their written statements. They also request a medical expert examination to ascertain whether their clients have tortured any of the Bulgarian defendants and the Palestinian. They suggest that witnesses should be summonsed to give evidence.

The court holds a 15-minute closed-door session on the charges of immoral conduct which have been brought against the Bulgarians and the Palestinian.

After that the judge announces that the next (seventh) Criminal Court hearing of the case will be held on October 20.

Diplomats from seven European countries are in the court room. The ambassadors of Belgium and Greece to Libya, the first secretaries of the embassies of Britain and the Czech Republic, a French embassy adviser, the Italian consul general in Benghazi, and the Polish consul attended the hearing as observers.

October 20, 2003. The Court hears pleadings by the lawyers and adjourns the trial until December 8.

December 8, 2003. The Court orders a new expert study of the case record. The study will be conducted by 12 local doctors, who are expected to be sworn in in court at the December 15 sitting. If they are ready with the expert examination by December 29, the Court will hold a hearing on that date.

Prosecution witnesses telll the Court that the Bulgarians were not tortured. A forensic doctor summoned as a witness argues that the scarring on the Bulgarians' bodies could be the result of injuries, not violence. He also says a forensic assessment dating from last summer, which assumed that the scars could be the result of torture, was not airtight evidence as it was made over three years after the alleged torture. The Bulgarians' Libyan lawyer Osman Bizanti says there were distinct scars on his clients' bodies and it could be determined if they had been caused by torture, dog bites or injury.

The policemen who allegedly tortured the Bulgarians say that they themselves had been tortured to confess that they had extracted confessions by torture.

There was a pause in the trial due to the Muslim festival Ramadan. Before December 8, the Criminal Court was expected to hold two hearings until December 24 prior to another interval during the Christmas season.

December 15, 2003. Five Libyan doctors are sworn in at an in-camera hearing of the Benghazi Criminal Court, to make up the expert commission which will examine the case records. The court rules that the commission has until December 29 to issue an opinion. Two commission members are Tripoli residents and three are resident in Benghazi.

Three of the Bulgarians are not at the hearing because the doctor of Al-Kawafiyah Prison has found they are ill.

December 29, 2003. The Criminal Court in Benghazi receives the report from the Libyan medical panel. The panel reportedly concluds that, contrary to the findings of world famous AIDS experts Prof. Luc Montagnier and Prof. Vittorio Colizzi, there was no evidence that an in-hospital infection led to the AIDS outbreak at the Benghazi hospital that affected 426 children. The Libyan doctors assume that deliberate actions were the likelier cause of the mass-scale infection. Copies of the report are to be made available to the defence on January 1, 2004.

The next hearing of the case is scheduled for January 12, when the lawyers of the Bulgarian defendants are expected to make statements on the findings reported by the medical committee. The judge says the Court will not consider any further civil claims.

2004

January 6, 2004. Justice Minister Anton Stankov calls a meeting of an interdepartmental commission on the Libyan case for January 8. The commission will hear Foreign Minister Solomon Passy about his December 20 meeting with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and will look into the Libyan panel's report on the case. It is expected to consider positions that will help the Bulgarians' defence for the next hearing of the court on January 12.

Meanwhile a Bulgarian and a Russian top AIDS expert say on bTV that no solid arguments have been presented so far to prove the intentional infection case of the prosecution. Dr. Danail Beshkov, the Bulgarian expert on the six Bulgarians' case, says that the two-week deadline the Libyan panel were given, was impossibly short to allow them thorough analysis of all facts in the case. Academician Vadim Pokrovski, who heads the Russian Federal HIV Centre, says in a bTV interview he is not surprised that the Libyan panel's report points to the Bulgarian medics as the likely culprits. An in-hospital infection would normally be blamed on the Libyan doctors, so the attempts to shift the responsibility onto the Bulgarians are understandable. The Bulgarian medics obviously had no motive to deliberately cause such an infection, the Academician says. He suggests that Bulgaria should approach the World Health Organization (WHO) for an expert assessment. He believes that a WHO position would be least vulnerable to suspicions of partiality and any attacks for a personal interest of the WHO examining experts would be unlikely.

January 12, 2004.At its 11th hearing of the case, the Court allows the lawyers of six Bulgarian medical workers to present an expert opinion on the Libyan AIDS epidemic case record. Lawyers Plamen Yalnuzov and Osman Bizanti ask that the Libyan medical panel who drew up the expert report on the case, be summoned to the Criminal Court to answer several questions to clarify their conclusions, especially because their report may be submitted for evaluation by other experts. The court orders that the request be submitted in writing.

The court hearing is attended by representatives of 13 countries, including Ireland which is holding the rotating EU presidency.

January 13, 2004.It transpires that the ambassadors of the UK and the Netherlands in Libya have presented a demarche on behalf of the EU to the Libyan government, supporting the Bulgarian defendants. The demarche reportedly says that, considering the nature of the charges against the Bulgarians and the lack of proofs, it would be right for the charges to be dropped and the six Bulgarian defendants released. It also notes that the legal proceedings are slow and urges fast and just outcome.

The demarche was reportedly presented to the Libyan authorities January 10, two days before the last court hearing in the case. The next hearing is scheduled for January 26.

January 26, 2004.At a new hearing of the Bulgarians' case, the defence lawyers sommon virologist Salem Al-Agili from Al-Fateh University of Tripoli to answer questions by the judge, the prosecutors and the defence, but the court decides that he has until February 9 to make a written deposition. The Bulgarians' lawyers submit written opinions by two US scientists answering 31 questions regarding the medical evidence and documents in the case. Their conclusions point to a hospital infection as the cause of the epidemic and to the lack of intentional actions and even involvement in causing it.

For the first time since the trial began last July, the defendants are allowed simultaneous interpretation at the court hearing.

The lasted is covered by a BBC television crew and attended by diplomats of 13 countries.

January 31, 2004. A motion by Bulgaria for the adoption of a resolution in defence of the Bulgarian medics is included on the agenda of a Jan. 31 meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Bureau. Considering the urgent nature of the issue, the Bureau decides to bypass the usual procedures and appoint a rapporteur - Matyas Eorsi of Hungary, Chairman of the Liberal, Democratic and Reformers' Group - to examine all the aspects of the problem and speak before the Bureau at its next meeting due March 1. Eorsi is expected in Libya by mid-February

February 5, 2004. A delegation of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) visiting Bulgaria says they will adopt a declaration expressing concern for the state of the Bulgarian medics in Libya.

February 5, 2004. The Government decides to provide 100,000 leva from the 2004 central budget in additional funding to cover expenses related to the defence of the six Bulgarian medics. In 2003, the government passed three decrees for a total of 330,000 leva for the Bulgarians' defence, accommodation and medical service in Libya.

February 9, 2004. At the 14th hearing of the case, the Libyan virologist Salim Al-Agiri tells the court that the infection at the Benghazi children's hospital was due to lack of prevention and poor control. The virologist is summoned as a witness for the Bulgarians' defence. Despite the persistent questions, he refuses to comment a report by a Libyan medical panel saying that the HIV outbreak was most likely due to intentional action by the Bulgarians.

The defence also submits written conclusions by four other leading HIV researchers, where they support the case for the Bulgarians' innocence in their answers to 31 questions. The four include: Prof. Miroslav Malkovsky of the University of Wisconsin's Medical School; Prof. Paolo Rossi of the Pediatric Department of the Tor Vergata University in Rome; and Prof. Guido Castelli-Gattinara of the Bambino Gesu Hospital in Rome. They submit copies of articles by anthropologist and independent consultant from Pennsylvania David Gisselquist in the International Journal of SDT &AIDS.

The February 9 hearing is attended by diplomats and observers of six European countries and the Gaddafi Foundation.

A new hearing is scheduled for February 16.

February 11, 2004. During a visit in Sofia, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Robert Bradtke says that the US State Department is closely following the trial against the Bulgarian medical workers in Libya. "The charges against them are unfounded and we hope that the Libyan Government will undertake the necessary steps for the Bulgarians' soon release," he says.

February 15, 2004. Two Amnesty International officers who are in Benhgazi as observers of the trial, meet with the Bulgarian defendants in the al-Kawafiyah prison where they are held.

February 16, 2004. At the 15th hearing of the case, the Court hears the final statements of the parties. The prosecutors reiterate their calls for the death penalty and the defence of the Bulgarian medics insist that their clients should be acquitted because their confessions were extracted under duress and are therefore invalid, as well as the other evidence. The defense has until February 23 to submit their arguments in writing.

Expectations that this would be the last hearing before the Court pronounce the judgments, prove wrong. The next hearing is scheduled for March 15 but it is still unclear whether it will be the last one.

Between the final statements of the prosecution and the lawyers, the court adjourns for 15 minutes to talk to two Amnesty International officers who are in the court room as observers in the trial. Attending the hearing are also the Ambassadors of the UK and the Netherlands, and diplomats from the embassies of the Czech Republic, Malta and Slovakia, and the consults of Italy, Turkey, Greece and Poland.

February 19, 2004. It emerged that several world media have applied for coverage of the final sittings of the Court, including the BBC, Reuters, Al-Jazeera, and TV crews from Egypt and Morocco.

February 20, 2004. US Ambassador to Bulgaria James Pardew comments his country's position on the Bulgarians' trial. He says the US, like the EU, believes that there were no legitimate grounds to hold the Bulgarian medical workers in custody and they should be released, hopefully as soon as possible.

May 6, 2004. The Criminal Court in Benghazi sentences to death by a firing squad the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor, after finding them guilty for the intentional infection of more than 400 Libyan children with AIDS. Dr Zdravko Georgiev is found guilty only of illegal transactions in foreign currency and sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of 600 dinars. As he has already been in Libyan custody for more than five years and overserved his sentence, he is released from prison and allowed to leave Benghazi, awaiting an exit visa to leave Libya.

The Bulgarians' defence lawyers say that the sentences will be appealed before the Supreme Court.

Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov calls for stepping up the appeal procedure and a Bulgarian interagency commission on the medics' case urges prompt action to appeal the sentence.

June 9, 2004. Lawyers Georgi Gatev and Hari Haralampiev join the defence team of the five Bulgarian nurses. The decision to reinforce the defence team was made at a meeting of Justice Minister Anton Stankov with the nurses' Bulgarian lawyer Plamen Yalnuzov and Supreme Bar Council (SBC) Chairperson Trayan Markovski. Gatev, who is SBC Deputy Chairperson, and Haralampiev, who is member of the SBC Supreme Disciplinary Court, will work together with Yalnuzov. Markovski has been designated coordinator of the defence team.

December 8, 2004 - Libya listed three conditions under which it is prepared to drop charges against the five Bulgarian nurses, Agence France Presse reported.

The AFP story quotes Ramadan Al-Fitouri, head of an association of families of the infected children, telling reporters that they had handed over a letter to a delegation of European Union doctors with three demands. The first demand reportedly insists that the children be taken care of in specialized clinics in Europe, the second is the construction of a specialized hospital in the town of Benghazi - the location of the HIV outbreak for which the Bulgarians are held responsible - and the third is supply all necessary medicines and payment of adequate compensation. In exchange for these, the families promise to drop the case against the nurses.

Al-Fitouri is quoted as saying that the amount of compensation is negotiable.

The reported letter is a new development following a statement by Libyan Foreign Minister Abdul-Rahman Mohammad Shalgam last week, when he said that his country was ready to reconsider the death sentences if Bulgaria paid compensations to the families of the infected children.

Bulgarian government officials hailed the thaw in the Libyan position. While stressing that negotiations were possible, they indicated that payment of what would be described as "compensation" was unacceptable as it would acknowledge the nurses' guilt. The Bulgarian side has always said the nurses are innocent of the charges.

December 9, 2004 - Libya will not execute the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor, according to Seif al-Islam, the son of Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gaddafi, who was quoted by the online version of "The New York Times".

"No one is going to execute anyone," said Seif al-Islam. He is also quoted saying that Libya would like to extradite the nurses to Bulgaria but suggested it might link that to the extradition of a Libyan man serving a life sentence in Scotland for the 1988 downing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

December 9, 2004 - The AFP quoted Al-Fitouri saying that the association wanted Bulgaria to pay 10 million euros for each of the infected children as a condition for the settlement of the case with the Bulgarian nurses.

July 5, 2004 - An appeal against the death sentences is lodged with the Supreme Court of Cassation.

2005

June 7, 2005 - The Tripoli Criminal Court acquits the Libyan officers who took part in the investigation against the nurses and who were accused by the nurses of torturing them into making confessions.

December 25, 2005 - The Supreme Cassation Court orders the Benghazi HIV outbreak case returned to a court of lower instance.

2006

June 26, 2006 - The Supreme Court of Libya upholds the acquittal of the Libyan police officers accused of torture by the nurses.

December 19, 2006 - At the last hearing on the HIV outbreak retial, the Tripoli Criminal Court announces that it sentences to death the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor.

2007

January 30, 2007 - The nurses are charged with slander against Libyan police officers. The case was initiated on a complaint by police officers who claim to have suffered from the nurses' statements during the HIV trial. The nurses claimed to have been tortured, while in custody, into making confessions that subsequently led to their death sentence.

In a separate development, the Sofia prosecuting service announced the initiation of criminal proceedings against the nurses' torturers.

February 17, 2007 - The nurses file an appeal against the death sentences passed by the Supreme Court. The first hearing on the appeal case is expected in mid-2007. The Court may uphold, change or revoke the sentences. If the case ends with guilty verdicts they will be subject to reconsideration by the Libyan Supreme Judicial Council chaired by the Libyan Justice Minister. The Supreme Judicial Council has the powers to reject, amend or confirm the decision of a given legal instance. Its decision is final and the Libyan legislation does not provide for additional opportunities to revise the sentences.