At its first hearing on July 8, 2003 the Criminal Court in Benghazi proceeds with the AIDS infection case. The court schedules another hearing for August 4, also in Benghazi and dismisses a request by defence lawyer Plamen Yalnuzov to release the defendants 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 requests that a report by prominent AIDS experts Luc Montagnier and Vittorio Colizzi be admitted in evidence. Yalnuzov argues that a profound scientific examination is essential for the court to establish the truth about the tragedy, which caused suffering to the infected children and their families as well as to the Bulgarian defendants who "have been subject to arbitrary and violent treatment." He urges the court to release the Bulgarian defendants on the recognizance of the Bulgarian authorities which undertake to ensure that the defendants will appear in court during the trial.

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

A lawyer of the parents of one of the infected children lodges a compensation claim for 15 million Libyan dinars. The claim is handed over to the lawyers of the defendants.

During the hearing, tight security measures are in place in the city outskirts. Many police officers with submachine guns and pistols guard the venue of the hearing near the Al-Kawafiyah Prison.

Only several relatives of some of the infected children are admitted in the court room. The six Bulgarian defendants sit behind bars in a partitioned section of the room. Sitting in the back rows are about a dozen Libyans whom an Arraignment Chamber in Benghazi found responsible for duress committed against the Bulgarians during the preliminary investigation.

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

In front of the building where the hearing is held, members of the committee of relatives of infected children meet with Bulgarian journalists. In a message to the Bulgarian people they say they wish to learn the truth about the case, regardless of who caused the infection.

August 4, 2003. At its second hearing on August 4, the criminal court in Benghazi decides to admit AIDS experts Prof. Luc Montagnier and Prof. Vittorio Colizzi as witnesses in Case No. 213/2002. The decision is made in response to the explicit request of Plamen Yalnuzov, the Bulgarian lawyer of the defendants.

The court decides to give the two scientists a hearing on September 3, when its next hearing will be held.

At this second hearing of Case No. 213/2002, Yalnuzov submits in writing six motions. One motion is to call Professors Luc Montagnier and Vittorio Colizzi, as witnesses. He also moves that a report by Abu Zayd Umar Durda, made in connection with the causes of the AIDS epidemic in Libya and presented to the UN Security Council, be admitted in evidence. The Durda report blames the bad state of the Libyan health care system on the UN embargo imposed against Libya in 1992.

Another one of Yalnuzov's motions is that the court admit in evidence the last issue of the "La" magazine, which in 1998 conducted an investigation into the causes of the AIDS epidemic at the Al Fatah children's hospital in Benghazi and was suppressed in consequence. Yalnuzov hands the panel of judges a copy of the "La" last issue.

Yalnuzov also moves that the defendants' lawyers be given access to the protocol on the results of the analysis of five banks containing plasma protein that were seized from the home of one of the nurses charged in the case, Kristiyana Vulcheva.

The Bulgarian medical workers' lawyer insists for an investigation in connection with the place of detainment of the six Bulgarians between June 1999 and February 2002, the period of the preliminary investigation. According to Yalnuzov, the place where the Bulgarians were detained during that period is in contradiction with the Libyan law.

Once again Yalnuzov insists on changing the measure of restraint applied to the Bulgarians - "remand in custody", into a milder one.

Nine Libyan nationals - officers of the security services, appear at the hearing held by the criminal court. A year ago, issuing a ruling in connection with the testimony of the Bulgarian medics that they were tortured during the preliminary investigation, the Arraignment Chamber in benghazi determined that the officers should be held liable for what they did.

The Libyan lawyer of the Bulgarian defendants, Osman Bizanti, is represented by his assistant Hanan Alaueti. The hearing lasts for more than an hour and is attended by Italian Consul Giovanni Pirello and, for the first time, by Fatma al-Masri, Human Rights Department Coordinator at the Qaddafi International Foundation for Charity Associations, as observers.

The Bulgarian medics' defence lawyers confirm that the panel on Case No. 213/2002 is composed of judges from Derma, a town neighboring Benghazi.

The reason is that several judges from Tripoli and Benghazi refused to take on the case due to public sentiments in the two cities.

The court panel is constituted following a ten-month break in the court proceedings involved in the case.