The Lockerbie case is looming over the fate of six Romanian medics sentenced to dea th in Libya, writes Dan McLaughlin.
The 8½ year ordeal of six foreign medics sentenced to death in Tripoli for infecting 426 children with HIV-infected blood may finally end next week, when Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy could free them in a bid to win favour with Washington and Brussels.
International HIV experts say the outbreak began before the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor started working at the affected hospital in Benghazi, and insist that dirty needles and other poor hygiene practices probably caused the problem. Some of the medics accuse their interrogators of raping and torturing them to elicit confessions. Libyan prosecutors insist, however, that they infected the children, more than 50 of whom have died, with contaminated blood as part of a macabre experiment to find a cure for Aids.
In the early days of the case, they were even accused by Col Gadafy of being part of a CIA or Israeli plot to destabilise his country. The medics have been in jail since February 1999, and their final appeal against the death sentence was rejected this week by the Supreme Court in Tripoli.
The verdict would have been cause for despair in other countries and less extraordinary cases, but it was welcomed by everyone campaigning for the medics' release. Their families now publicly express the hope, along with Bulgarian, EU and US leaders, that Gadafy will order the government-controlled High Judicial Council to commute or quash the execution orders when it meets to discuss the case on Monday.
An influential charity run by Gadafy's son says a deal to pay for the children's treatment has been agreed between their relatives and negotiators from the EU and the Bulgarian government - clearing another prolonged sticking point in the case.
Sofia has refused to offer compensation to the children's relatives because it would appear to be an admission of the nurses' guilt, despite suggestions from Libya that payment of 10 million in dollars or euro for each infected child could win the medics' release. That figure was significant for those who recalled that Gadafy had reluctantly paid $10 million compensation for each of the 270 victims of the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing that was blamed on Libyan agent Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi.
Gadafy has linked the nurses' case with the Lockerbie trial, which he sees as a glaring injustice, masterminded by Western intelligence services, which resulted in humiliation for Libya and the imprisonment of al-Megrahi near Glasgow.
Relatives of the nurses have pleaded with Britain to free al-Megrahi, and many observers believe it is no coincidence that he was given leave to make a second appeal against his conviction just a fortnight ago. British officials have been involved in talks with Libya over the fate of the medics, the precise content of which was not disclosed.
If the nurses were arrested to shift blame from Libya's creaking health service, so the confirmation of the death sentences allows the country's judicial system to save face. By saving the medics and perhaps freeing them, Gadafy can demonstrate his power and compassion in one dramatic gesture.
He hoped for a swift rapprochement after abandoning his nuclear programme in 2003 but, despite restoring diplomatic relations with Tripoli soon after, Washington only this week nominated its first ambassador to Libya for more than 20 years.
While Washington has lifted sanctions from Libya and removed it from a list of state sponsors of terrorism, the medics' plight has hampered Tripoli's bid to attract major investment from the US and EU, which Bulgaria joined this year.
Libya is hungry for investment and has Africa's biggest oil reserves. The US, for its part, is thirsty for energy, and its companies want to stake a claim to Libya's richest oilfields ahead of competitors from Russia and elsewhere; and for EU nations that want to reduce their dependence on Moscow's oil and gas, Libya's reserves of high-quality crude just across the Mediterranean are also a great attraction.
A deal to commute the medics' sentences and pay for the children's treatment would appear to suit all parties. What will linger is the tragedy of the 426 infected boys and girls, and the bitter waste of almost a decade of the medics' lives.