February 7, 2000
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.

February 28, 2000
Lawyer Osman Bizanti moves for adjournment of the court proceedings for as long as possible so that he can study the case records which fill over 1,600 pages of case records.

The trial is adjourned until April 3. The judge explains that the Bulgarian defendants have been familiarized with the indictment and have pleaded not guilty of the charges contained in the indictment.

The Bulgarians’ court-appointed lawyer withdraws from the case as his functions have been exhausted.

Attending the hearing are Bulgarian Embassy officials, lawyer Vladimir Sheitanov and the husband of one of the accused, Emil Ouzounov.

April 30, 2000
At the court hearing lawyer Bizanti moves the court to procure the reports of the World Health Organization on the spread of the HIV virus in Libya, prepared at the request of the Libyan side; the analyses of the reference laboratory with the Institut Pasteur in France, and to give a hearing to the head of the laboratory, Prof. Luc Montagnier, as an international expert on AIDS; the materials collected by the editorial staff of the Libyan magazine La for their article on the spread of AIDS in Libya; all official medical reports on the spread of AIDS in Libya in 1990-99; to make arrangements for the preparation of international expert reports on the “physical evidence” that the prosecution claims has been found in the home of one of the defendants: a bottle containing an HIV-contaminated blood product.

On Bizanti’s motion, the trial is adjourned until June 4, 2000.

June 4, 2000
At this hearing the court allows lawyer Sheitanov to make a speech for the first time. Sheitanov moves the court to grant him free access to his clients and access to the case records; requestes the court to order a medical examination of the Bulgarian defendants in the presence of a Bulgarian doctor, to establish their physical and mental condition; for an international medical study on the AIDS infections in Benghazi, to be performed by officers of the World Health Organization. Sheitanov also asks the court to call witnesses for the defence from Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, the Philippines and the UK; to instruct the Libyan investigative authorities to provide a list of officers who have participated in the Bulgarians’ interrogation; and also to allow representatives of the International Human Rights Commission. Sheitanov seconds Bizanti’s motions to the court made at the previous hearing and urges a six-months adjournment. The Palestinian defendant’s lawyer says that all other defendants support Sheitanov.

The trial is adjourned until September 17, 2000. The court says that if Sheitanov’s powers as defence counsel to the Bulgarians are to become effective, all conditions enshrined in Libyan legislation should be met. The court does not react to the motions of the Bulgarians’ defence.

September 17, 2000
The trial is adjourned yet again, until October 7, on the motion of the defence lawyers, who say they have not had enough time to study the case records. They move for release of the defendants from custody.

Lawyer Bizanti stresses the need to have a medical expert study involving internationally recognized scientists such as Prof. Montagnier and Prof. Perrin.

October 7, 2000
Lawyer Sheitanov requests permission to read on his own the case records and moves for placing the defendants under house arrest instead of continuing to hold them in custody. He also asks that Bulgarian, French, Swiss and Italian medical experts be allowed to take part in the preparation of a medical expert examination.

Lawyer Bizanti reiterates his motions from the previous hearings.

The court adjourns the trial until November 4, 2000, and allows lawyer Sheitanov to read the case records.

Attending the hearing is lawyer Abu Adjeila al-Maalyul of the People’s Bar, Bulgarian Embassy officials, and Bulgarian journalists.

November 4, 2000
The Palestinian defendant’s lawyer moves for a new adjournment.

Lawyer Bizanti requests the court to admit six medical expert witnesses whose testimony can disprove the prosecution’s case. He seconds the motion for adjournment of the trial.

Lawyer Sheitanov does not attend the hearing.

The trial is adjourned until January 6, 2001.

January 6, 2001
The Palestinian’s defence counsel does not attend the hearing.

Lawyer Bizanti moves for adjournment, saying that Palestinian Ashraf al-Hadjudj is a key figure in the trial, on whose actions and depositions the charges against the Bulgarians largely rest, which is why it is important to hear the arguments of his defence.

Lawyer Sheitanov seconds the motion for an adjournment and requests the court to give him an opportunity to read the case records and to interview his clients. Sheitanov also moves for placing the Bulgarian defendants under house arrest on account of their bad physical and mental condition. He says that keeping the Bulgarians in pre-trial detention for almost two years is incompatible with the fundamental legal principle that one is innocent until it is proven otherwise.

Bizanti seconds the motion to relax the conditions of the Bulgarians’ restricted liberty and thus treat them as the Libyan citizens accused in the case.

The trial is adjourned until February 10.

February 10, 2001
Again, the People's Court of Libya does not proceed with the case on the merits but sits for nearly two hours (the previous hearings are much shorter). The court spends 45 minutes deliberating the lawyers’ motions before pronouncing its ruling on yet another adjournment.

For the first time the court makes a decision which, albeit indirectly, concerns the medical aspect of the case: it orders the translation into a foreign language of the documents contained in the case records. This comes in response to a motion by Libyan lawyer Osman Bisanti for translation of the documents relating to blood plasma bottles found in the home of one of the arrested nurses.

This is the first time the Bulgarian counsel for the defence makes a motion in connection with the treatment of the defendants while in custody. Bulgarian lawyer Vladimir Sheitanov, retained by the Bulgarians' relatives, asks that Nassya Nenova's medical record be secured from the traumatology ward of the hospital where she received treatment in April 1999.

Tahumi Tumi, the Palestinian defendant’s lawyer, asks for his client's epicrisis, saying the investigators had treated the detainees roughly.

Colonel Djuma, who interrogated and allegedly tortured the Bulgarians during the investigation, is seen in the courtroom for the first time. He is pointed to the journalists by the Bulgarians, who this time look in good physical condition but are much more uptight and edgy than at previous court hearings.

This is the first time the court has approached the Office of the People's Commissioner for Healthcare for an opinion on similar AIDS cases in individual hospitals, as well as on cases in Al Fatah hospital, a maternity hospital and an orphanage, all of them in Benghazi. Most infected children were born at Benghazi's only maternity hospital. Some of them are parentless and were sent to the orphanage. The medical experts who handled the case in Benghazi attribute it to an in-hospital infection due to lax sanitation and hygiene.

Lawyer Vladimir Sheitanov moves for the first time that the defendants be questioned in court. The defence team are weighing the pros and cons of this option. Sheitanov argues the risk of having them interrogated in court would be reasonable. For his part, Bisanti sees a risk in the possibility that some of the defendants may be misled and confused by the questions asked. Confessions made before police and prosecution investigators may be retracted, while a confession in court is considered incontrovertible evidence and cannot be changed by anybody.

All nine Libyan defendants are present for the first time since Bulgarian journalists have been covering the trial. The Libyans are out on bail and most of them go to work.

The main difference from previous hearings is the presence, for the first time, of international observers, setting a precedent in Libyan judicial practice. Tunisian lawyer Mohammad Baqar, Secretary General of the Mediterranean Bar Association, and Zubeida Amrani, Secretary General of the Association of Arab Jurists, attend the hearing. The two are in Tripoli at the request of their Bulgarian colleagues of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, of which Mrs Amrani is Vice President. The two lawyers cannot get involved in the case in any way, but their presence in the courtroom guarantees that the legal standards are applied, according to them.

March 17, 2001
The trial is again adjourned until April 28. The defence team moves for the adjournment, citing the absence of Tahumi Tumi, the Palestinian defendant’s lawyer. The hearing lasts less than half hour. The court also decides against releasing the defendants from custody and order a medical examination of that Palestinian Ashraf al-Hadjudj at his lawyers’ request.

The court orders the appointment of a special representative of the archives to be present and provide assistance while lawyer Sheitanov is reading the case records.

Bizanti moves for a new adjournment of the trial, arguing, among other things, that he expects to be e-mailed document from witnesses for the defence named by him. The judge interrupts Bizanti while he is making this motion, warning him sternly that only the court is competent to admit witnesses. Bizanti comments after the hearing that the court had rejected a motion to call virologists Luc Montagnier and Luc Perrin as witnesses. Sheitanov's new aide, lawyer Saleh Mohammed Ben Halim of the People’s Bar, takes part in the hearing only to show a letter certifying his authorization to be part of the defence team.

Sheitanov's lengthy speech in the courtroom is interrupted by the judge. Sheitanov demands that the objectivity of the judicial procedure be guaranteed and points to errors in the investigation related to the medical aspects of the case and to the guaranteeing of the detainees’ procedural rights. In his view, there is no evidence to sustain the subversion charges. Sheitanov also requests permission to call several witnesses, including Filipino nurses and Bulgarian citizen Maria Zasheva, a nurse at the pediatric ward of the Avicenna Hospital in Sirte, who has been under investigation and questioned in connection with an AIDS case in that ward.

Sheitanov also wants to see the medical record of the child whose father lodged a complaint against Snezhana Dimitrova. He requested an official, private or multiple expert medical examination.

Sheitanov discusses the lawfulness of the preliminary inquiry and tells the court it was not conducted objectively and conclusively, that not all conditions for the free expression of the detainees’ will were observed, that they were not treated humanely and were not provided with legal counsel during the preliminary inquiry. Asked by the judge about the sources of his information, Sheitanov says he gathered the information from eyewitness accounts and from conversations with his defence team colleagues.

The Bulgarian lawyer argues it is absurd to charges his clients with threatening the security of the Libyan State, citing as an example to the work done by many excellent Bulgarian health professionals who have been employed in Libya. He names specific people and says that Bulgarians have raised the children of the Libyan leadership. At this point, the judge interrupts him.

The prosecutor is the last to address the court. He argues that the defence comes up with the same demands every time. The court, he says, should ignore the motion to adjourn the trial because more than 12 months have elapsed since its commencement. He dwells on the humanitarian aspect and on the drama of the families of the 393 children that were infected with HIV and of those that have already died. In his view, it is not accidental that such a large number of children were infected at one and the same hospital and one and the same ward, which proves the case for a deliberate infection. The prosecution denies there is need for the Bulgarian lawyer to familiarize himself well with the case and points to the fact that Sheitanov left Libya at a time when he was allowed to read the case records.

In the courtroom, the Bulgarian medics do not look in good health. Dimitrova can hardly move and has to be supported by Vulcheva. Dimitrova is handed a glass of water which she does not have the strength to hold. They all look pale and scared.

Asked by BTA if the defendants are now in a better or worse condition, Sheitanov says they were much worse now than two days ago when he last saw them. Georgiev says that he shares a 25 sq m cell with another 50 detainees, that the prison conditions are very harsh and that they live like animals.

The nine Libyan defendants are in the courtroom as well.

Attending are Bulgarian Embassy officials , representatives of the state-owned company Expomed which recruits medical workers for Libya, the Director of the National AIDS Laboratory Dr Danail Beshkov, and lawyer Plamen Yulnuzov. Colonel Mansur, who is in charge of security at the People’s Prosecution Bureau, is also present. Security is tighter this time. The journalists’ cameras and recorders are taken away, and the men and women are herded in separate rooms and searched.

April 28, 2001
The People’s Court of Libya re-schedules for May 13 its hearing at which it will proceed with the case. The court is categorical that this is the last adjournment of the trial.

The hearing lasts just five minutes or so. The presiding judge wants “yes” or “no” answers from the lawyers as to whether they are ready with their summations.

Bulgarian lawyer Vladimir Sheitanov moves for adjournment, arguing that he needs more time to get familiar with the 2,000 pages or so of case records, since he has had the opportunity to read them for a little over a month. The Bulgarian lawyer is prepared to present his summation if the trial proceeds.

The Bulgarians’ Libyan defence lawyer, Osman Bizanti, declares that he wants his clients to be given a hearing in open court. Otherwise, Bizanti argues, their self-confessions made during the investigation would be their only valid statements.

The six Bularians on trial look relatively well. They manage to shout to the Bulgarians in the courtroom that they are held in very harsh conditions, that they are locked all the time and lack potable water. These circumstances conflict with a court ruling of January, which ordered to relieve the conditions of their custody.

Attending the hearing are Bulgarian Embassy officials, the envoys of the Interdepartmental Commission: lawyer Plamen Yalnuzov and Dr Danail Beshkov, and the correspondents of the Bulgarian National Television and of the 24 Chassa daily.

May 13, 2001
The court decides to postpone the questioning of the defendants and to allow medical experts to examine them, giving them treatment if necessary. The court allows that the defendants receive foreign visitors but refuses to release them from custody.

Unlike previous hearings, this one is held in the building of the Police Academy near Tripoli. For the first time press photographers and television crews are admitted in the court room. The attending journalists can talk to the defendants, who say that during their first three months in custody they were tortured and subjected to sustained psychological harassment. Asked about the kind of torture they were put to, the defendants say: “electric shocks” and “medieval methods.” The Bulgarian medics complain they have not received specialist medical care.

Courtroom attendance is far larger than usual. Apart from a group of Bulgarian journalists, a Reuters correspondent is also present (he has been specially invited by the Libyan authorities), along with seven Arab journalists, including a correspondent of Al Ahram, the largest circulation paper in Egypt, reporters from Syria and Jordan, and journalists working for Arab newspapers published in London. The Libyan media are represented by a national television crew.

Also attending the hearing are lawyer Mohammed Baqar of Tunisia in his capacity as international observer, an official of the Palestinian Embassy in Tripoli, an official of the United Nations Mission in Tripoli, Bulgarian Embassy officials, representatives of the Bulgarian Inderdepartmental Commission on the Libyan case, and Bulgarian consultant Dr Danail Beshkov, an AIDS expert.

All lawyers for the defence quote in their statements a speech made by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi in Abuja, Nigeria, on April 27.

Addressing the closing session of the African AIDS Summit, Qaddafi mentioned the trial in Tripoli and linked the medics to the CIA and Mossad. Qaddafi said he had incontrovertible physical evidence showing that the Libyan children had been infected on the orders of these services. He insisted that the case be brought to the notice of the World Health Organization, the Red Cross, the UN and the whole world, and stated that the culprits will have an international trial, like the Lockerbie trial.

The defence lawyers move that their clients be questioned in court. It is important that the court learn more details about what happened at the children's hospital in Benghazi, they argue. Almost all lawyers, except Vladimir Sheitanov, request an adjournment of the trial so as to be able to familiarize themselves in greater detail with the case records.

The Bulgarians’ Libyan defence lawyer, Osman Bizanti, hands the court a letter from the Bulgarian Embassy which guarantees that if released on bail, the Bulgarians will appear in court for the trial.

Sheitanov, retained by the Bulgarian medics’ relatives, expresses sympathy for the tragedy of the Libyan families whose children have been infected with AIDS, adding that the five Bulgarian nurses, who have been in prison for more than two years, also have children, and some of them even two children, who are suffering as much as the Libyan children. Sheitanov hands the court a memorandum listing his basic motions: to call witnesses to testify in court in compliance with the Libyan Code of Criminal Procedure, to allow the performance of an expert medical examination by internationally recognized specialists, to question the defendants, giving them the opportunity to throw light on the facts involved in the case. "There are many conflicting and untrue elements in the testimony of the accused, and the court must be familiarized with the reasons for the appearance of these elements," Sheitanov said.

In turn, Bizanti emphasizes that the charges are based entirely on the defendants’ testimony. In his view, the court must hear out the accused, as well as a number of witnesses in the case, and allow the defendants to receive medical treatment.

It is very important that internationally recognized AIDS experts be admitted before the court as witnesses for the defence, Bizanti argues.

The civil suit lawyer says that his colleagues have been given enough time to study the case records and arrive at the truth. Another lawyer, who introduces himself as the father of one of the infected children, takes the floor and describes what has been done at the children's hospital in Benghazi as a “crime against humanity". He insists that the court deliver judgment on the case quickly, pointing out that the children infected with the HIV virus are neither living nor dead.

The prosecutor is the last to speak. He says that the defence has presented all its demands and that all facts of the case are clearly and categorically contained in the case records.

June 2, 2001
The Libyan People's Court proceeds with Case No. 44 of 1999 on the merits. All 16 defendants are questioned during the more than four hours long hearing. The questioning follows this procedure: the judge asks his questions first, and the lawyers, who have the right to question all defendants, submit their questions in writing to the judge who decides the form in which to pose them.

The six Bulgarian medical workers plead not guilty of all charges.

Questioned in court, Kristiyana Vulcheva and Nassya Nenova retract the self-confessions they have made during the investigation, explaining that the confessions were made under physical and psychological pressure and duress. Vulcheva and Nenova testify that they have been tortured by electric shocks, beaten and, as Vulcheva puts it, "subjected to all kinds of torture known since the Middle Ages." Nenova says she confessed and attempted suicide for fear of further torture. "I am not guilty on any of the counts. My conscience is clear," she says, asked whether she tried to take her own life because of a sense of guilt. "We had protection from no one, we had no doctor. We were alone there with those men who did everything they wanted to do," she adds.

Palestinian physician Ashraf al-Hadjudj, on whose evidence most of the charges against the Bulgarians rest, is the first of the defendants to questioned at the hearing. Then Kristiyana Vulcheva, Nassya Nenova, Valya Siropoulo, Valya Chervenyashka, Snezhana Dimitrova and Dr Zdravko Georgiev are questioned, in the order in which their names appear in the indictment. Their answers are confident and clear.

It emerges from the questioning that Nenova, Chervenyashka Siropoulo and Dimitrova did not know Vulcheva until 24 hours after what they describe as their "kidnapping" from Benghazi, after, as Nenova says, their blindfolds were taken off.

Dr Georgiev, Vulcheva's husband, says he first met the four nurses in the courtroom. Only Nenova and Vulcheva testify they have seen Ashraf at the Benghazi Children's Hospital where he was an intern. The two emphasize, however, that they did not communicate with him and did not perform any tasks assigned by him.

In connection with the bottles of infected blood which, according to the prosecution, have been found in Vulcheva's home, Vulcheva says she did not know how they turned up at her home. Dr Georgiev says he was collecting empty bottled for a Libyan colleague working with him at Dongha Consortium. Georgiev concedes he has left three or five bottles at home but does not know what exactly was seized from his home because he was not present at the search. Vulcheva denies knowing any persons identified as John the Englishman and Adel the Egyptian.

All nurses and Dr Georgiev deny the charge they have been paid "large sums of money" to infect the children. Nenova gives a detailed account of the torture to which she has been subjected and the horror this torture made her feel. She says that she has been shown the other nurses' passports and that this is how she identified them. Nenova also contends that she told the truth as far back as July 17, 1999, but then a Colonel Juma came to her - she mentions that name several times during the hearing - and threatened her that she would be tortured again if she persisted. Nobody recorded the withdrawal of her earlier confessions. Nenova also says that she and Ashraf were beaten, and that the interrogations were conducted without an interpreter.

Dimitrova says that she had a day off on a date on which, according to the indictment, she injected a Libyan child without a doctor's instructions at 2 a.m. Palestinian Ashraf also retract his pre-trial testimony, saying that it was extracted under physical and psychological pressure.

During the hearing, the Bulgarians are not asked any questions concerning the daily routine at the hospital, or their relations with the Libyan doctors accused of having concealed the laboratory test results of some of the children and thus causing the infection of some of their relatives.

Under questioning, the Libyan doctors focus on the medical aspect of the trial. Without stating it explicitly, they make it clear that they accept the theory that the children were deliberately infected with AIDS. The Libyan defendants read prepared statements and are asked only a few questions. The lawyers of the Palestinian and of the Bulgarians object, arguing that he ignored parts of their questions, handed to him in writing, or that he abridged or downplayed their questions.

After the questioning, the lawyers are given the floor. Bizanti again requests an international medical expert examination and the admission of witnesses for questioning, including Prof. Luc Montagnier of the Institut Pasteur in Paris, who discovered the AIDS virus, and Prof. Luc Perrin of the Geneva University Hospital. Lawyer Sheitanov joins that petition, adding to the witness list specifying that he would like to call Libya's representative to the World Health Organization Dr Amier Rahil, the Bulgarian AIDS expert Prof. Dr Radka Argirova, the Director of the Russian Central AIDS Laboratory, Academician Vadim Pokrovsky, and physicians from Italy, France, Switzerland and Austria who have treated some of the Libyan children who have developed AIDS.

The court schedules the next hearing for June 16 and warns the lawyers to be ready with their oral arguments for the defence. The court orders lawyers Osman Bizanti and Vladimir Sheitanov to submit a list of the persons they want heard and the questions which they would like to ask.

Family members of the Bulgarian medics are admitted to the court hearing: Dr Ivan Nenov, Nassya Nenova's husband, and Antoaneta Ouzounova, Valya Chervenyashka's daughter. After the hearing the two defendants have a brief meeting with their next of kin. The Bulgarian defendants are allowed to talk to the journalists, too. "Help up! We are psychologically crushed! Write about us!" Vulcheva and Dr Georgiev tell reporters. They ask for arrangements to be made for weekly visits by staff members of the Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli.

The hearing is held at the Police Academy building heavily guarded by men wearing helmets and khaki uniforms.

Relatives of the Palestinian defendant and parents of HIV-infected children also attend. One of the parents objects to an allegation by one of the Libyan physicians that the parents were informed about their children's infection.

Correspondents of 17 media cover the hearing on site. Apart from the Bulgarian reporters, there are journalists from Arab countries and a German TV crew.

The international observers are also in the courtroom: Arab lawyers Zubeida Amrani of Algeria and Mohammed Baqar of Tunisia.

June 16, 2001
The Libyan prosecutor asks the People's Court in Tripoli to pass maximum sentences on the six Bulgarian health professionals and the Palestinian doctor standing trial. Interpretation of the prosecutor's arguments is available only in the part directly concerning the Bulgarians.

Arguing the case for the State, the prosecutor says "These people have no moral human feelings once they have killed those children. They have sold themselves to the devil, even though the Jamahiriya has given them the right to work and live without let or hindrance." In his 40 minutes long statement, the prosecutor describes the children's infection as a "national catastrophe."

The prosecutor cites the opinion of local and foreign experts, including the discoverer of the AIDS virus, Prof. Luc Montagnier, who allegedly said that those children had been picked to be infected with the virus. According to the prosecutor, the children were victimized by foreign secret services which masterminded the infection. "To those services, child killing is nothing new. In this way they want to prevent Libya from playing an important role in the Arab World and to disturb calm in the country. The killing of the children by that virus is a means by which those secret services achieve their ends," the prosecutor says.

In corroboration, he argues that all 393 children were infected in the internal ward of the Benghazi Hospital rather than in other wards where the risk is greater. He cites medical records according to which the HIV concentration in the children's bloodstream is very high, a million per millilitre. The prosecutor sees another proof in the fact that four subtypes of the virus were detected rather than the usual one or two.

The prosecutor calls on the defence to be more objective and transparent and for establishment of the truth about the tragedy of those infected as well as the consequences for their families, to realize that some children have already died and others are expecting death, that the families of those infected are running into problems.

The court does not call witnesses but proceeds with the lawyers' arguments. The first to speak is lawyer Tahumi Tumi and his three colleagues, defending the Bulgarians' Palestinian co-defendant, Dr Ashraf al-Hadjudj.

After that, the court hears the case of the Bulgarians' defence lawyer Vladimir Sheitanov. In a two-hour statement, he says that the charges against the Bulgarian nurses in the type and form presented in the indictment are not proved, that the prosecution's theory is highly dubious, that substantial physical evidence is lacking: the prosecution has not exhibited the blood bottles which allegedly contain contaminated plasma, nor the device allegedly used by Kristiyana Vulcheva to distil alcohol, nor the syringes which were allegedly used to commit the crime, nor the photos allegedly showing sexual relationships between the defendants. Sheitanov stresses that the Bulgarian medics had neither the time nor the conditions to commit jointly the crime ascribed to them, considering that Nenova, Siropoulo and Chervenyashka started work at the children's hospital on February 17, 1998, Dimitrova on August 10, and Ashraf on August 1, 1998.

Considering also the way in which the defendants were deposed, which he described as "extrajudicial, to put it mildly," the Bulgarian lawyer moves that the Bulgarians and the Palestinian be acquitted for lack of evidence and no case to answer.

In corroboration, the Bulgarian lawyer notes the conflicts between the case records, the testimony which Ashraf and the Bulgarians gave at the police and then at the People's Prosecution Bureau and finally when they were questioned in open court on June 2. Among other flaws, Sheitanov cites the missing three pages of the self-confessions of one of the nurses who allegedly testified that before injecting the children with the HIV virus infected herself, even though the medical tests found the nurses healthy.

The lawyer elaborates on the medical aspects of the evidence: the blood bottles were found in a shoebox in Kristiyana's home four months after the infection cases, which is impossible from a medical point of view. The documents record tests of bottles containing blood culture rather than blood plasma, and the virus cannot survive in blood culture which can only sustain anti-bodies. Hospital laboratory chief Hadra Isa Mussa concluded that infection with anti-bodies is impossible. The Bulgarian lawyer also cites experts as arguing that such AIDS transmission cannot be deliberately committed but is rather the result of an in-hospital infection. Sheitanov moves the court to order a medical examination of the defendants to establish what caused the scars on the fingers of one of the nurses, the broken ribs of another and the scars on the buttocks of a third defendant. He also moves for establishment of the cause of their psychological instability and depressions. The lawyer says that the identity of the torturers is known to the Bulgarian defence and that he will submit their names in writing to the court.

The Bulgarian Ambassador to Libya Lyudmil Spassov and Consul Sergei Yankov attend the hearing.

Members of the families of the Bulgarian defendants, as well as relatives to the infected children, are in the courtroom. The court adjourns until June 17, when the rest of the lawyers are to present their cases.

June 17, 2001
At the beginning of the hearing, the Bulgarians' Libyan lawyer Osman Bizanti presents a very strong case for the defence, refuting one by one all charges against his clients and moving for their acquittal.

Invoking provisions of Libyan laws, of the Great Green Charter for Human Rights Freedoms and of international human rights instruments, Bizanti argues that his clients' rights have been violated: while in police custody, Nenova and Vulcheva were forced to confess during 90 days of incessant psychological and physical torture; the police held them for a period much longer than the seven days provided for in the law; Nenova and Vulcheva told him they had been put under incredible pressure, Bizanti says, citing as evidence Nenova's suicide attempt.

The Libyan lawyer accuses the People's Prosecution Bureau of failing to investigate the defendants' assertions that they had been tortured in police custody and, worse yet, that after questioning at the prosecution office they had been returned to their torturers. Bizanti says that after Vulcheva complained of the torture, the Prosecutor General concluded that she did not look pressured. "The Prosecutor General is not a physician to determine that. He should have ordered a forensic medical examination," Bizanti says.

The Libyan lawyer cites a search at Vulcheva's home, in which bottles containing HIV-contaminated blood plasma were found, as procedurally flawed. The search was conducted in the absence of the defendants even though they were in police custody, and this is a violation of the Libyan law, Bizanti says.

Assuming academically that the prosecution was right in alleging deliberate AIDS infection, Bizanti asks several questions: Why the Bulgarian women did not leave Libya during the six months between the presumed time of the crime and their apprehension? Why were they not exfiltrated if they worked for foreign services? "It is only logical that when a person commits a crime he should not wait to be caught," Bizanti argues. He also asks why Vulcheva, who is described in the indictment as a very astute and experienced conspirator, should leave the contaminated blood bottles in her home instead of disposing of them. And that after Ashraf, who was briefly detained in December 1998, told her about his questioning and he advised him, as he confessed, to get rid of all incriminating evidence!

In the indictment, the same charges are repeated in a different form, Bizanti says, referring to the four first charges (deliberate infection of Libyan children with AIDS for the purpose of destabilizing the Jamahiriya). According to the Libyan lawyer, the case records contain no evidence that these crimes were committed. The charges rest on self-confessions, extracted under pressure, which were later on retracted by the defendants. The confessions of Nenova and Vulcheva, as well as of Ashraf, are ridden with inconsistencies. Thus, in his original evidence Ashraf alleged that an Egyptian anesthetist was an accomplice to the plot. The investigation established that this was not the case.

Bizanti did not find any proof in the case records that his clients had met for the purpose of conspiring. Nor is there any physical evidence that Vulcheva distilled alcohol, and the allegations that bottles containing alcohol residue were found in her home were not confirmed by forensic laboratory tests.

The Libyan lawyer says that the rest of the charges, of illicit trade in foreign currency and adultery, are not proven, either. He recalls that under the Libyan law, the latter crime has to be established by the confessions of both parties whereas only Ashraf alleged that he had a relationship with some of the nurses.

Bizanti assumes that the infection occurred through negligence and describes the poor hygiene at the Al Fateh Hospital. He quotes a Libyan doctor as saying at the previous court hearing that the hospital should have been closed if all rules of hygiene were to be observed. "The condition of the hospital provides a hospitable environment for the spread of the AIDS virus," Bizanti says. He also dwells on the shortage of dispensable supplies and medical materials, as well as of AIDS diagnostication tests, due to the embargo imposed on Libya. Bizanti quotes the opinion of experts of the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as of a Libyan physician who is in charge of the National AIDS Control Laboratory. The WHO experts assume that the Benghazi Children's Hospital lacked the appropriate hygienic conditions. Hygiene was equally poor in the delivery room of the Jamahiriya Children's Hospital, where part of the children who proved infected later were born, and they may well have contracted the virus there, experts said.

The Libyan physician of the National AIDS Control Laboratory says there are two methods of infection: through blood transfusion or use of contaminated instruments. He assumes that the second cause is more likely.

Bizanti says he will submit to the court documents proving that the infection did not spread in the way alleged by the prosecution.

After Bizanti, the Libyan doctors' lawyers speak, followed by the civil suit lawyer, who demands a 75,000 dinar indemnity for each infected child and says that after the end of this trial he will initiate a case at which he will present his demands.

The hearing is adjourned somewhat hurriedly, after the judge interrupts Bulgarian lawyer Vladimir Sheitanov. Invoking his right to reply to the prosecutor's arguments, the Bulgarian lawyer invites 25 HIV-infected Libyan children to a holiday in Bulgaria at his own expense and at the expense of the defendants' relatives. Several phrases later, the judge interrupts Sheitanov, refuses to hear the rest of the counsels for the defence, does not allow the defendants to speak, and reads out the rulings of the court.

The court sets its next hearing for September 22, 2001, when judgment against the defendants in the trial will be rendered. The court gives the defence three weeks to submit all written documents on the case. The court allows the relatives and the lawyers to visit periodically the defendants, refuses to release them on bail, and authorizes medical examinations when necessary.

September 22, 2001.
Tripoli. Court hearing. Delivery of judgment in the case against the six Bulgarian health professionals postponed until December 22 because of the need of additional consideration of the defence objections, the significance of the charges and the volume of the indictment, and a desire to ensure all guarantees which the standards of local criminal law provide for the defendants. The case records exceed 1,600 pages. The Bulgarians' Libyan defence lawyer Osman Bizanti sees the postponement as a good sign, but their Bulgarian lawyer Vladimir Sheitanov does not think it alleviates the defendants' condition.

For the first time, the court hearing is attended by representatives of Western embassies, including Belgian Ambassador Henri Lauber, whose government is holding the EU Presidency and represents US Government interests in Tripoli. Ambassador Lauber says after the hearing that even though their representatives were not present in the courtroom at previous hearings, the EU countries have taken interest in the progress of the trial.

December 22, 2001.
The People's Court of Libya schedules its next hearing in the case of the six Bulgarians charged with intentional infection of 393 Libyan children with HIV for February 17, 2002. The court argues that it needs additional time to peruse the case records. December 22 was the date on which the court was supposed to deliver the verdicts.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Solomon Passy, who waits for the court ruling at the Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli, and Justice Minister Anton Stankov issue a joint statement assessing in positive terms the adjournment of the delivery of verdicts in positive terms. This opinion is shared by the Bulgarians' Libyan defence lawyer, Osman Bisanti, and by the international observer, Tunisian lawyer Mohammad Baqar. For his part, lawyer Vladimir Sheitanov believes that the adjournment puts his clients under added pressure and affects adversely the state of their health.

This is the second court hearing to be attended, in addition to Bulgarian Ambassador Lyudmil Spassov, by ambassadors and representatives of EU Member States, EU candidate countries, and Canada and Yugoslavia.

Dr Juma Otaika, President of the Society for Protection of Human Rights with the Gaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, is present in the courtroom, too. In September, the President of the Gaddafi Foundation, Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi, a son of the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, undertook to monitor the trial.

February 17, 2002
The Libyan People's Court announces there is insufficient evidence to back the charges against the Bulgarian medics of conspiracy against the Libyan state, and transfers the case to the chief prosecutor's office.

The People's Court has the jurisdiction to pronounce itself on state security-related cases and believes itself incompetent on this matter, Libyan judge Ibrahim Abu Shinaf says.

The spreading of the HIV virus which caused the death of more than one person is a fact, but the claims that the defendants were conspiring against the Libyan state are dubious and controversial, reads the court decision.

The court describes the charges of conspiracy against the Libyan state as 'fabricated interpretation' and 'conclusions taken out of the context', and stresses that there is no evidence that the defendants have been involved in a conspiracy against the Libyan state.
The court concludes that it is incompetent to pass a verdict on case 44/99 and ordered that the documentation on the case be referred to the chief prosecutor's office.

The court sitting is attended by Ambassador Spassov and other Bulgarian diplomats, as well as the ambassadors to Libya of the EU member and applicant countries, Japan, Canada, Yugoslavia and the Palestinian Authority. A representative of the Orthodox Church in Libya is also present.