Frattini "Shocked", EU Condemns Bulgarian Verdicts

Politics » BULGARIA IN EU | December 19, 2006, Tuesday // 00:00

EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini was quick to expressed his shock at the death verdict of five Bulgarian medics and a Palestinian doctor reiterated Tuesday.

"It's a great disappointment," said Frattini outside the European parliament, "I'm shocked by this decision" to hand down the death penalties to the nurses and a Palestinian doctor.

Italian Franco Frattini, also a Commission Vice President, added "I strongly hope that the Libyan authorities will rethink this decision" which he described as "an obstacle to cooperation with the EU".

"Cooperation will the EU must be based on fundamental rights," he said. "I can't imagine that these executions will take place, the Libyan leadership has the instruments to review this decision."

A Libyan court has sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death for knowingly infecting hundreds of Libyan children with HIV.

The medics have been in detention since 1999, during which time 52 of the 426 infected children have died of the deadly virus.

The nurses and doctor were sentenced to death in 2004, but the Supreme Court quashed the ruling after protests over the fairness of the trial.

The defendants say they are being made scapegoats for unhygienic hospitals. They have the right of appeal to the Supreme Court for a second time.

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