The death sentences on foreign medics convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV have been commuted to life in prison, BBC reported, citing a Libyan official.

Relatives of the 438 children had earlier dropped their demand for the death penalty, after accepting compensation worth USD 1 M per child.

Libya's High Judicial Council is expected to confirm the new sentences.

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were found guilty of starting an HIV epidemic in the 1990s.

They say they are innocent.

However Libya's Supreme Court last week upheld their 2004 death sentences, placing the medics fate with the High Judicial Council.

The council, a semi-political body, has the power to commute sentences or issue pardons.

The BBC's Rana Jawad, in the Libyan capital Tripoli, says that under Islamic law financial compensation offsets the death penalty.

The deal indicates that it is highly unlikely that the death penalty verdicts will be upheld, she adds.

At the weekend the medics signed a letter of request for pardon and mercy, as well as a document ruling out any further legal action against the Libyan state over the prison time they have so far served.

A spokesman for the relatives, Idriss Lagha, said that all the families had now received compensation.

The medics were convicted of deliberately injecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood. Fifty-six children have since died.

The six, who have been in prison since 1999, say they were tortured to confess.

Foreign experts say the infections started before the medics arrived at the hospital, and are more likely to have been a result of poor hygiene.

Bulgaria, its allies in the European Union, and the United States say Libya has used the case to deflect criticism from its run-down health service.

They have also suggested that not freeing the nurses could carry a diplomatic price for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who is seeking to emerge from more than three decades of diplomatic isolation.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!