The five Bulgarian nurses, sentenced to death for knowingly infecting with HIV hundreds of Libyan children, will be questioned on February 25.

The nurses were in great distress after learning a new charge of slandering the police has been raised against them at the end of January. They were to be questioned on February 11, but the district court in Tripoli postponed the hearing at the request of Libyan lawyer Osman Bizanti.

The nurses attended Sunday's court session, but did not testify.

The slander charge came to punish the Bulgarians for complaining that were severely tortured into making confessions during their police interrogation.

In the first trial, the judges set aside the scientific evidence in favor of a dramatic cloak-and-dagger scenario based on testimony by Libyans who said they had witnessed the nurses hoarding vials of HIV-infected blood; the testimony was bolstered by confessions that the nurses have since said were elicited by torture.

The nurses complained of severe torture during their police interrogation, saying they were jolted with electricity, beaten with sticks and repeatedly jumped on while strapped to their beds. Two of the women said they were raped.

Nine Libyan security officers and a doctor were charged and later acquitted of torturing the nurses to extract confessions that they deliberately infected 426 children with the HIV virus that causes AIDS in a Benghazi hospital.

At the end of June 2006 a Libyan court rejected the appeal of five Bulgarian medics on the acquittal of the Libyans, saying the evidence against the policemen was too weak to convict them.

The new charge of slander against the nurses was largely interpreted as Libya's strike back to Bulgaria's lawsuit against the eleven Libyans, who tortured the death-sentenced nurses into making confessions.

Sofia prosecutor's office initiated the lawsuit at the end of January, charging the defendants with forcibly making the nurses to do or endure something against their will by power abuse.

If found guilty, the Libyans face up to six years in jail. The Libyans may be forced to serve their sentences in Bulgaria, should the prosecutors find it suitable to do so.

The lawsuit is Bulgaria's response to the travesty of justice in Libya, but unfortunately comes too late and has weak chances of success.