The six Bulgarian medics that will stand before the Benghazi Criminal Court Monday are optimistic about its decision, the Bulgarian National Radio reported September 7.

This is the fourth time that the court convenes to hear the HIV trial against the Bulgarian medical workers, accused of deliberately infecting some 400 Libyan children with HIV.

Monday's hearing will be devoted exclusively to speeches for defence, to be launched by the prosecutor who will plead for death sentences. The prosecutor is expected to base his pleading on the argument of deliberate infection an experiment the Bulgarian medics allegedly carried out in the hospital.

He will be followed by the lawyers of the infected Libyan children, the officers who questioned and tortured the Bulgarians and the nine Libyan medics, accused of negligence.

The Bulgarian medics lawyers will be the last to take the floor.

Observers comment that the hearing can stretch over the next several days as no time limits have been set to the duration of the speeches.

Bulgarian lawyer Plamen Yalnazov plans to speak for no more than thirty minutes before the court. His speech will be supplemented by a 150-page document.

Under the local legislation the court is to rule on the case thirty days later.

On their visiting day Sunday the medics had a 5-minute meeting with Bulgarian journalists and talked to their relatives over the phone. The six said that they hope the court will take note of reports by HIV experts Prof. Luc Montaigner and Vittorio Collizi who testified in favour of the defendants.

Earlier in September Bulgarian media reports claimed that a new allegation was pushed forward by the prosecution in the trial. Bulgarian TV reporter in Libya Mirolyuba Benatova said prosecution changed its main version alleging that the Bulgarians tested a new drug on the children thus infecting them with HIV. The initial charges centered on an alleged conspiracy against the Libyan state carried out by the Bulgarian medics on behalf of the CIA and other secret services.

There is no legal way for new charges to be brought against the six Bulgarians, Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Solomon Passy said on September 7.