A Tripoli court acquitted Tuesday ten Libyans accused of torturing death-sentenced Bulgarian nurses into making confessions.

The defendants - nine Libyan security officers and a doctor - were charged with torturing the nurses to extract confessions that they deliberately infected 426 children with the HIV virus that causes AIDS in a Benghazi hospital.

"We have repeatedly said that we are innocent and today's ruling proves the truth," one of the acquitted Libyan policemen said.

"There is no violence in Libya. The West wants to politicize the case but we left it in the hands of the jurisdiction," he added.

All ten accused were free pending the final court session.

The Bulgarian side will appeal the ruling.

"The court's ruling is not satisfactory for us," Bulgaria's Deputy Foreign Minister Gergana Gruncharova commented.

The lawsuit was initiated against the ten Libyan defendants on 25 January 2005, after nearly three years of investigation into the statements of the Bulgarian medics they had been tortured into confessions under a parallel case.

The Bulgarians submitted a joint claim worth one million Libyan dinars against the Libyans. At the fourth adjournment of the court hearing on May 10 the defence of the Palestinian doctor claimed five million dinars in retribution.

The latest court session on May 17 was scheduled to hear the pleas of defence and prosecution but saw an adjournment for June 7.

The five Bulgarians and one Palestinian doctor, currently on death row, have been detained since 1999.

Tripoli's Supreme Court, which was to confirm the death sentences of the Bulgarian convicts or call for a retrial on May 31, surprisingly delayed the case for November 15.

The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death a year ago on charges of intentionally causing an AIDS outbreak at a Benghazi children's hospital, sparkling cries of foul from Bulgaria and its allies the United States and the European Union. The court ignored world-renowned AIDS experts testimony that the outbreak started before the medics began working at the clinic.

Bulgaria has remained adamant in its refusal to pay indemnities for the freedom of the Bulgarian defendants, saying they were innocent.

Experts commented that delay will help the two sides to agree on a deal, adding that delaying a Supreme Court appeals verdict was extremely rare in Libya.

During the key visit of President Parvanov to Libya days ahead of the court session on May 31, Libya has indicated it could revise death sentences of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor in return for external aid to battle the deadly disease.

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