Timeline: Libya HIV trial of medics
Timeline: Libya HIV trial of Bulgarian medics
A Libyan court sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death on Tuesday for deliberately infecting hundreds of children with the HIV virus.
A chronology of key events in the case:
February 1999: Nineteen Bulgarian medical workers in Libya are detained for investigation into how children in a Benghazi hospital became infected with HIV. Thirteen are later freed.
February 2000: Trial opens for six Bulgarians, a Palestinian doctor and nine Libyans accused of deliberately infecting the 426 children with HIV-contaminated blood products.
September 3, 2003: French doctor Luc Montagnier testifies that the epidemic broke out a year before the Bulgarians arrived.
September 8: Libyan prosecutors demand death sentences for the six Bulgarians and the Palestinian.
May 6, 2004: Libyan court sentences five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor to death for deliberately infecting the 426 children. A Bulgarian doctor is acquitted.
June 7, 2005: A Tripoli court acquits nine Libyan policemen and a doctor of torturing the medics.
December 25: Supreme Court scraps death sentences, sends the case back to a lower court for retrial.
January 21, 2006: Families demand total of 4.4 billion euros ($5.5 billion) from donors to end the standoff.
July 4: During retrial, defendants again deny charges.
December 6: International scientists who rebuilt the history of the virus from samples from the children show the HIV subtype began infecting patients before the foreign medics arrived.
December 19: Libyan court finds the five Bulgarians and the Palestinian guilty and sentences them to death after a seven-month retrial. Relatives of the children hail the ruling. Bulgaria and the medics' families condemn it.
July 17, 2007: Families of the 400 children infected with HIV receive $1 million each in exchange for their agreement to drop their demand for the execution of the six medics.
July 18: Libya commutes the death sentences of the six medics to life in prisonment following the $1 million payout to families of the children infected with HIV.
