So, medicine, public health, and humanitarian aid have been publicly executed in Libya. Most of us are clearly able to envision how badly we are about to be routed in our fight against AIDS. The tragedy that took place in 1999 in one of the world’s worst unhygienic conditions that infected more than 400 children with HIV, consequently accusing five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor are now waiting to file an appeal against the new verdict with the Supreme Court of Libya.

What effect this might have on AIDS control mission worldwide?

What really scares are the implications this might have in the future. Think of all the healthcare professionals who leave behind their comfortable lives and travel to places like the desert or the jungles of Africa just to save the people from the deadly epidemic but this surely is not the way they should be repaid. Can we expect more people will be eager to work for the cause? All the nurses, doctors and health workers of the world are in their own way likely to bear witness to and pay the consequences of this tragedy in the years to come.

The Libyan judgment can only be seen as a blunder made to fool hundreds of parents into believing that their children had been poisoned or murdered by their nurses and doctor. And yes, promoting evolutionary biology is a distant second here compared to the primary issue of saving innocent human lives, but it is worth pointing out that the question of ignoring evolutionary science really can be a matter of life and death for some.

Not a fair trial

Despite the increasing pressure of international doubts over the fairness of the trial of the six medics - who have been in Libyan custody for almost eight years and now sentenced to death by Libya’s Supreme Court, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi could only come up with the words-

‘Those who committed crimes must accept the consequences.’

Nothing strange with those words; because a leopard doesn’t change his spots.

Little new evidence was presented in the second trial. The court held just 12 hearings, half of them adjourned shortly after they begun. Lawyers representing the six defendants claimed that they were not given a fair opportunity to make their case, with the court refusing to allow independent scientific evidence to be heard.

Timeline: Bulgarian medics trial

Why doesn’t Gaddafi commute the sentences?

There is probably more going on behind the scenes. Benghazi is the centre of opposition to his dictatorial regime, and the Aids epidemic has become a focus of mass popular anger. Colonel Gaddafi himself propagated the idea that the epidemic was caused by the Bulgarians acting on the orders of foreign intelligence agencies. So there’s no way Gaddafi can or will commute the sentences.
As earlier, it was only doubted that he is looking for a way of taking revenge on the West for the loss of dollars inflicted over the Lockerbie bombing but the real horse-trading should be starting now. Libya has asked for 10m euros (£6.7m) compensation to be paid to each of the families of victims, suggesting the death sentences could be commuted in return.

May be Libya realize that closer the Bulgarians get to the firing squad, harder the bargain they will be able to drive.

Via: BBC