The Libyan government’s release of six foreign healthcare workers brings a welcome end to a long miscarriage of justice, but human rights abuses in the country remain a deep concern, Human Rights Watch said today.
The Libyan government arrested five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor in 1999, charging them with having purposefully infected 426 Libyan children with HIV. Courts sentenced them twice to death before the country’s top judicial body commuted their sentences last week, following a complex deal with the European Union to compensate the victims’ families with a reported US$ 1 million per child.
The healthcare workers flew to Bulgaria today as part of a “prisoner exchange,” where the Bulgarian president promptly pardoned them. The Palestinian doctor had been granted Bulgarian citizenship.
“The release of the six foreign healthcare workers is a welcome step, but others remain in prison after torture and unfair trials, including political prisoners,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director of Human Rights Watch. “Libyan authorities need to reform the judicial system that unjustly imprisoned these health workers for more than eight years.”
The trial of the healthcare workers raised serious concerns about due process and torture. During interviews in Tripoli’s Jadida prison in 2005, four of the six health workers told Human Rights Watch that they had confessed only after enduring torture, including beatings, electric shock and sexual assault.
Luc Montagnier, the co-discoverer of the HIV virus, testified in the original trial that the children were probably infected as a result of poor infection control procedures at the hospital, and that many of the children had been infected with HIV before the foreign health workers arrived in Libya in 1998.
European Union officials have said the release was made possible by a deal struck in Tripoli on improving Libya-EU ties. This week French President Nicolas Sarkozy will travel to Africa with a stop in the Libyan capital Tripoli.
“We support Libya’s improving ties with the international community, but not at the expense of human rights,” Whitson said. “The absence of a free press, the mistreatment of detainees and the need for legal reform require urgent international attention.”
At least 50 of the children infected with HIV have died, and the case has deeply angered the Libyan public. Families of the children told Human Rights Watch in 2005 that they suffered discrimination and stigmatization from officials and the public. The deal with the European Union reportedly involves treatment for the children at hospitals in Europe.
“The Libyan authorities should ensure that these children receive proper care and that its hospitals do not put others at risk,” said Whitson. “The government should also develop programs to increase understanding of AIDS and reduce stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV.”
