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Thread: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    Update:

    Monday, 16 July, 2007: The relatives of HIV-infected children formally dropped on Sunday their demands for execution of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, who holds a Bulgarian passport. The group representing the families and the medics reached a financial settlement out of court, which would pay the relatives of each child US$ 1 million in compensation. The six medics have been detained since 1999 on charges of deliberately infecting the children with HIV and were sentenced to death in 2004. Following an appeal and a re-trial, they were sentenced to death for a second time last year. After reaching agreement, the medics signed the paperwork petitioning for their pardon, although it has been worded so as not to imply they were guilty, Darik News reported. Libya's Supreme Judiciary Council is expected to hear their appeal on Monday. [SNA]

    Monday, 16 July, 2007: Croatia said yesterday it had received no official demand to contribute to a reported European compensation package for the families of Libyan children infected with the AIDS virus. Media reports have suggested that European Union countries may offer damages to help save from the death penalty five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor convicted of infecting 438 Libyan children with HIV. The French Le Figaro daily reported on Saturday that some EU countries including Croatia could "erase Libya's debt to them to show their goodwill and help advance this case." "The Foreign Ministry did not receive any official initiative over the issue," ministry spokesman Zeljko Belaj told the state-run HINA news agency. [AFP]

    Monday, 16 July, 2007: Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to die for infecting hundreds of children with HIV may know this week whether they are to go free. Libya's Supreme Court last week upheld the death sentences, placing their fate back in the hands of the government's High Judicial Council (HJC), which is controlled by the government and has the power to commute sentences or issue pardons. With the Council due to meet on Monday, EU governments are hopeful the six will be set free after hectic negotiations. Libyan officials say the Council could take several sessions to reach a final decision and will only agree to the release of the nurses if a settlement had been reached in the talks between the families and the EU. "The Council will take into consideration several factors like compensation, the age and the time spent by the medics in jail," Libyan Foreign Minister Abdelrahman Shalgam told reporters. [Reuters]
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=83072

    HIV Kids' Families: West Forced Us to Drop Death Demands against Bulgarians

    16 July 2007, Monday

    HIV sick Libyan children's families have been forced to drop their death demands against jailed Bulgarian medics as otherwise the west will not issue treatment visas to the suffering youngsters, the chairman of the relatives association said Monday in an interview for Darik Radio.

    Ramadan al-Fitouri made the announcement just hours before the session of the High Judicial Council, which is to make the final decision on the fate of the five nurses and the Palestinian doctor with a Bulgarian passport.

    "Some of the families still insist on performing the execution of the accused," Fitouri explained during the interview.

    He confirmed a financial deal has been wrapped up between the families of the children and the defendants, which would pay the relatives of each child USD 1 M in compensation.

    "We have not submitted the official agreement to the High Council yet," the chairman added.

    The papers provide on the treatment of the infected children in Libya and abroad, constructing a new modern medical centre in Benghazi as well as on securing all medicines needed until the end of the patients' lives.
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=83073

    Libya Delays by Few Hours Final Decision on Jailed Bulgarian Nurses

    16 July 2007, Monday


    The six medics have been detained since 1999 on charges of deliberately infecting the children with HIV and were sentenced to death in 2004. Following an appeal and a re-trial, they were sentenced to death for a second time last year. Photo by BGNES

    Libya's High Judicial Council delayed by a few hours its long-awaited sitting on Monday to have the final say on the fate of the five jailed Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor.

    The nine-member body, headed by the minister of justice, will convene at 6 pm local time.

    The political body could approve, reject or cancel the medics' death sentences, which have been confirmed by the Supreme Cassation Court on July 11.

    There are two key documents that should guarantee the council's session will be final.

    The first one is the paperwork petitioning for pardon, signed by the medics. The second is an out of court agreement, reached between the families of the HIV infected children and the defendants, which would pay the relatives of each child USD 1 M in compensation. As a result of the settlement, the Libyan families have dropped their demands for executing the six medics.

    The relatives are expected to submit Monday morning the official papers that prove they do not want the Bulgarians to be executed.

    It was exactly the relatives' failure to submit this document that forced the council to delay its session, reports say.

    The six medics have been detained since 1999 on charges of deliberately infecting the children with HIV and were sentenced to death in 2004. Following an appeal and a re-trial, they were sentenced to death for a second time last year.
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    There is more information here on Pan Am Flight 103:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_Am_Flight_103

    excerpt:

    Compensation from Libya

    On May 29, 2002, Libya offered up to US$2.7 billion to settle claims by the families of the 270 killed in the Lockerbie bombing, representing US$10 million per family. The Libyan offer was that:
    • 40 percent of the money would be released when United Nations sanctions, suspended in 1999, were cancelled;
    • another 40 percent when U.S. trade sanctions were lifted; and
    • the final 20 percent when the U.S. State Department removed Libya from its list of states sponsoring terrorism.
    Jim Kreindler of New York law firm, Kreindler & Kreindler, which orchestrated the settlement, said:
    "These are uncharted waters. It is the first time that any of the states designated as sponsors of terrorism have offered compensation to families of terror victims."
    The U.S. State Department maintained that it was not directly involved. "Some families want cash, others say it is blood money," said a State Department official.


    Compensation for the families of the PA103 victims was among the steps set by the UN for lifting its sanctions against Libya. Other requirements included a formal denunciation of terrorism—which Libya said it had already made—and "accepting responsibility for the actions of its officials".[31][32]


    Over 18 months later, on December 5, 2003, Jim Kreindler revealed that his Park Avenue law firm would receive an initial contingency fee of around US$1 million from each of the 128 American families Kreindler represents.



    The firm's fees could exceed US$300 million eventually. But Kreindler argued:
    "Over the past seven years we have had a dedicated team working tirelessly on this and we deserve the contingency fee we have worked so hard for, and I think we have provided the relatives with value for money."
    Another top legal firm in the U.S., Speiser Krause, which represented 60 relatives, of whom half were UK families, was understood to have concluded contingency deals securing them fees of between 28 and 35 percent of individual settlements. Frank Greneda of Speiser Krause commented:
    "Sure the rewards in the U.S. are more substantial than anywhere else in the world but nobody has questioned the fee whilst the work has been going on, it is only now as we approach a resolution when the criticism comes your way."
    On August 15, 2003, Libya's UN ambassador, Ahmed Own, submitted a letter to the UN Security Council formally accepting "responsibility for the actions of its officials" in relation to the Lockerbie bombing.[33] The Libyan government then proceeded to pay compensation to each family of US$8 million (from which legal fees of about US$2.5 million were deducted) and, as a result, the UN cancelled the sanctions that had been suspended four years earlier, and U.S. trade sanctions were lifted. A further US$2 million would have gone to each family had the U.S. State Department removed Libya from its list of states regarded as supporting international terrorism, but as this did not happen by the deadline set by Libya, the Libyan Central Bank withdrew the remaining US$540 million in April 2005 from the escrow account in Switzerland through which the earlier US$2.16 billion compensation for the victims' families had been paid.[34] The United States announced resumption of full diplomatic relations with Libya after deciding to remove it from its list of countries that support terrorism on May 15, 2006.[35]


    Some observers believe that Libya's acceptance of responsibility amounted to a business deal aimed at having the sanctions overturned, rather than an admission of guilt. On February 24, 2004, Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem stated in a BBC Radio 4 interview that his country had paid the compensation as the "price for peace" and to secure the lifting of sanctions. Asked if Libya did not accept guilt, he said, "I agree with that."



    He also said there was no evidence to link Libya with the April 1984 shooting of police officer Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan Embassy in London. Gaddafi later retracted Ghanem's comments, under pressure from Washington and London.[36]


    A civil action against Libya continues on behalf of Pan Am, which went bankrupt partly as a result of the attack. The airline is seeking $4.5 billion for the loss of the aircraft and the effect on the airline's business.[37]


    In the wake of the SCCRC's June 2007 decision, there have been suggestions that, if Megrahi's second appeal is successful and his conviction is overturned, Libya could seek to recover the $2.16 billion compensation paid to the relatives.[38]
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_ne...104971,00.html

    Revealed: Lockerbie 'bomber' could go free



    Mark Townsend and Paul Kelbie
    Sunday June 17, 2007
    The Observer


    The case of the only man found guilty of the Lockerbie bombing, Britain's biggest terrorist outrage that killed 270 people, could be reopened after fresh evidence that his conviction was based on unreliable evidence.If the appeal is successful, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi could walk free.


    Senior legal and intelligence officials have told The Observer that the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission will conclude that the conviction of al-Megrahi is unsafe and that he may have been a victim of a miscarriage of justice.



    The commission's verdict follows a three-year inquiry that examined new evidence submitted by Megrahi's legal team. They registered concern over the testimony of expert witnesses, contradictory forensic evidence and vital material not aired at the trial.


    They say in their 500-page report that the new evidence casts reasonable doubt on the verdict that Megrahi was responsible for the bombing of Pan-Am flight 103 four days before Christmas 1988.


    Sources close to the commission, an independent body made up of senior police and legal figures set up to investigate alleged miscarriages of justice, said 'hundreds' of inconsistencies have been uncovered in the crown's case.



    Megrahi, 54, received a life sentence in 2001 for plotting and carrying out what was then the world's worst terrorist atrocity following a trial costing £80m at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands. Megrahi has always insisted he was innocent. The development suggests that the perpetrators responsible for blowing up the airliner over Lockerbie might remain free almost 20 years after the attack.


    The commission will refer the case to the High Court in Edinburgh on appeal in 10 days' time, where it is expected that the conviction will either be quashed or that Megrahi could face a retrial. Although the court has the power to uphold Megrahi's conviction, sources believe the weight of evidence examined by the commission suggest this is unlikely.


    Major concerns with the crown's case include:
    · Credibility of the key forensic scientists used by the prosecution during Megrahi's trial.
    · Inconsistencies of statements made by the Maltese shopkeeper who allegedly sold Megrahi clothes found scattered around Lockerbie.
    · New evidence not presented at the trial pointed away from Libyan involvement and towards Palestinian terrorists as those responsible for the atrocity.


    Megrahi has served seven years in British custody. During sentencing he was told he must serve at least 27 years before being considered for release.


    Politically the ramifications of the commission's decision are enormous, posing questions for both British investigators and the Scottish judicial system. In addition, the decision will add succour to the theories that Megrahi was framed for a crime he never committed.


    Named in a 400-page report of evidence collated by Megrahi's seven-strong legal team are those suspected of carrying out the attack. Among them is Mohammed Abu Talb, a convicted Palestinian terrorist and initial suspect for the Lockerbie bombing. He was a member of the Syrian-led Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command, a terrorist group backed by Iranian funding. The claims will raise the political stakes at a sensitive time in relations between the West and Iran.


    Following Megrahi's trial, a number of legal observers expressed unease over the 'circumstantial' nature of the case against the Libyan intelligence officer.


    A legal source who has seen the evidence collated by Megrahi's team said: 'The case was flaky and you only had to shake it a bit for it to start falling apart. A steamroller has been taken to it'.


    Named in the commission's report are individuals that lawyers believe should have faced trial instead of Megrahi. Among them are Talb and another man who is a former member of the Libyan intelligence service .



    Special report
    Lockerbie

    Appeal judgment
    Full text: Lockerbie appeal judgment

    The issue explained
    14.03.2002: The Lockerbie appeal

    Interactive guide
    The Pan Am 103/Lockerbie bombing

    Photo gallery
    The evidence in pictures

    Timeline
    23.01.2002: Lockerbie: a chronology of events

    Audio reports
    January 23 2002: Kirsty Scott (3mins)
    January 31 2001: Accused 'utterly impassive' at verdict (2mins 10)

    Useful links
    Pan Am 103/Lockerbie crash - official site
    Lockerbie Briefing - Glasgow University school of law
    Lockerbie trial verdict (pdf)
    Lockerbie report - air accidents investigation branch
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6900547.stm

    Libya to decide HIV medics' fate

    The imprisonment of the medics has caused an international outcry

    Libya's High Judicial Council is to meet to decide the fate of six foreign medics sentenced to death over the infection of Libyan children with HIV.


    The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, on death row since 2004, insist they are innocent.


    The country's Supreme Court last week upheld the death sentences, placing the final decision in the council's hands.


    But the EU is said to be confident a deal to free the six is close after a compensation package was agreed.

    Tainted blood
    Under the agreement, reached after frantic negotiations between officials from Libya, Bulgaria and the EU, each of the children's families would receive $1m (£0.49m).


    The council, which meets monthly to review death penalty sentences, can confirm, overturn or amend the Supreme Court's sentences.
    TRIAL IN DATES
    1999: 19 Bulgarian medics and a Palestinian doctor are arrested at a Benghazi hospital after an outbreak of HIV/Aids among children. 13 are later freed
    May 2004: Libya convicts and sentences five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor for infecting children with HIV. A Bulgarian doctor is freed
    Dec 2005: Libyan Supreme Court overturns the convictions and orders a retrial
    Dec 2006: Medics sentenced to death a second time
    Feb 2007: Medics appeal to the Libyan Supreme Court
    June 2007: Top EU officials hold talks in Libya to try to secure medics' release
    11 July 2007: Libya's Supreme Court upholds death sentences



    Profile of the medics
    Timeline: Medics trial




    The BBC's Rana Jawad, in Tripoli, says any financial settlement or deal will have a major impact on the council's final decision.


    Under Islamic law, she says, the families' decision to accept the compensation means they will drop their rights to pursue the death penalty.


    The council will also consider the amount of time already served by the prisoners, which totals eight years.


    The council's proceedings, due to begin at 1600 GMT, are normally public but the media have not been invited to cover the event.


    In principle, the council's decision is final and irrevocable but our correspondent says that any announcement will probably be followed by a political process involving talks between Libya, Bulgaria and the EU.


    The medics insist they are innocent of deliberately giving tainted blood to children at the Benghazi hospital in 1998.


    Fifty-six of the 438 children infected have since died.


    The six were found guilty and sentenced to death twice, first in 2004 and again in 2006 following a court appeal.

    During their trial, one of the doctors who helped first isolate the virus, Luc Montagnier, said the hospital epidemic began before the foreign medics started working there.
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://article.wn.com/view/WNATAC389...5BF0E21F0A371/

    Family settlements may spare Bulgarian medics in HIV case
    The Independent
    The saga of Bulgarian medical workers sentenced to death for allegedly infecting 426 Libyan children with HIV-Aids appears to be heading towards a political solution despite a decision by Libya's Supreme Court to uphold their convictions. On Tuesday, a mediating body headed by a son of the Libyan leader, Moammar Gaddafi, announced that a financial settlement had been reached with the families of the infected children. And next week, Libya's High Judicial Council meets to consider the case. The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were arrested in 1999 and sentenced in 2004 for deliberately infecting the children at Benghazi hospital with HIV-tainted blood. The sentence was confirmed in 2006 at a retrial. The prosecution accused the defendants of conspiring with foreign intelligence agencies to cause an Aids epidemic. All six say they are innocent of the charges, which caused international outrage, and the Bulgarian women...
    » Read full article

    (photo: F. de la Mure/MAE)
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEq7pZYiwKQ

    Nurse's families await Libya's decision
    In Bulgaria the families and friends of the five nurses are maintaining their vigil outside the Libyan embassy in Sofia. Zorta Anachkova remains utterly convinced of her daughter Christiana's innocence, and will not rest until she is home: "They have to negotiate whatever they need and let them go free. Libya had this AIDS problem long before our... (more) (less)
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...643257,00.html

    Gaddafi's Latest Victory



    By ANDREW PURVIS
    The Palestinian doctor and five Bulgarian nurses who were convicted for deliberately infecting more than 400 Libyan children with HIV/AIDS sit in their courtroom cage.
    Sabri El Mhedwi / EPA

    Normally, having your death-sentence upheld would not be a good bit of news. But in the case of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who have been held in an African prison for the past eight years on charges of having deliberately injected 438 children with AIDS-tainted blood, the ruling by a high court in Libya could be the beginning of the end of a high stakes international drama. Within the next week, the nurses, now aged 41 to 54, who at one point accused their interrogators of torture and sexual abuse, may be released to return home. If they are freed, the outcome would be a victory for the European Union, which has reportedly helped negotiate a face saving deal that includes a pay out to the families of the victims of the outbreak. The other winner would be Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, whose rapprochement with the West, which started with his pledging to destroy a clandestine nuclear program in 2003, can now continue unimpeded.

    It will not be a victory for the truth: the nurses themselves may not be exonerated, even though two of the world's leading AIDS specialists investigated the case and concluded that the disease was spread, not by the nurses — or by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, as Libyan prosecutors originally charged — but by poor hygiene at the government run hospitals. Some of the children were infected before the nurses even arrived. Critics have charged that Gaddafi's government needed a scapegoat for a scandal that otherwise would have been laid at his door.



    The new deal is unlikely to disabuse Libyans of the belief that foreigners, rather than officials with their own government, are at fault. The E.U. is also paying millions of dollars to the families of the infected children. "At least to the outside world Gaddafi comes out a winner," says Georgy Milkov, a leading journalist who has been covering the case from the beginning from Tripoli for the Bulgarian daily 24 Hours.


    The nurses were first arrested back in 1999, after doctors found that the AIDS virus had spread to children at a hospital in Libya's second largest city of Benghazi. Despite international appeals for the medics' release, they were sentenced to death by firing squad in 2004. Appeals ended this week with the upholding of the sentence, an apparent technicality. The case now moves to the country's top legal body which will have the option to annul the charges or, more likely, some observers say, to commute the sentence which would allow the nurses (and one Palestinian doctor who is accused with them) to go free though it is not yet clear when. In a important step that will help the Libyan judicial system save face if charges are dropped, the families of the AIDS infected children said they are willing to "pardon" the nurses.


    Still, the release is far from a done deal. It's technically possible that the meeting next week will only reduce the nurses' sentences, thereby easing some international pressure, but holding the prisoners in reserve to extract more cash or concessions from the West. But the Bulgarian prime minister Sergei Stanishev is optimistic. Next week's ruling, he predicted "will pave the way to a political solution. " European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso agreed: "We regret that these decisions [on the sentencing] have been taken but I'd also like to express my confidence that a solution can be found."


    If they are right, it's partly a credit to tiny Bulgaria's growing clout. The country joined the European Union in January, which allowed the 27-member body to negotiate on its behalf. The U.S. is also a strong supporter of Bulgaria thanks to its vociferous backing for U.S. operations in Iraq and elsewhere. (President Bush has called for the nurses' release.) But Western countries are also especially eager to smooth over any lingering problems with Gaddafi. Libya remains 'exhibit A' in the Western attempt to convince the world and notably Iran that giving up nuclear weapons' ambitions has its rewards. New oil deals with British and American oil companies are also being inked. On the same day that the judicial proceedings against the nurses ended this week, Washington took another important step towards re-establishing full diplomatic relations with Libya after more than a quarter of a century by appointing a new ambassador to Tripoli.


    As for Gaddafi, in addition to deflecting blame for the epidemic, he appears to have benefited from a spurious accusation by winning some medical treatment and financial aid for the victims families. (The amount of money going to families is still unknown and both Bulgaria and the E.U. refuse to call it "compensation" since that implies guilt.) "We should never underestimate Libya," says the Bulgarian journalist Melkov. "Gaddafi has been able to make the West demonstrate compassion for the victims of Benghazi, while at the same time trading his aces in the best possible way on the international stage. He plays his cards very well."

    With reporting by Violeta Simeonova
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/6897650.stm

    Bomber's fate 'up for discussion'

    The Lockerbie bomber has not been excluded from a possible deal on prisoner transfers between the UK and Libya, according to Jack Straw.

    The UK justice secretary said the fate of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was a "matter for discussion" with the Scottish Executive.


    A row broke out after Tony Blair and Colonel Gaddafi signed a memorandum of understanding on prisoner transfer.


    Downing Street said at the time that the agreement did not cover Megrahi.
    However, Mr Straw has now made clear that the Lockerbie bomber's transfer has not been explicitly ruled out.
    A fundamental factor in the decisions that relate to Scotland in any prisoner transfer agreement, if one is agreed, are what the Scottish Parliament and executive want


    Jack Straw
    UK Justice Secretary




    The justice secretary, who was visiting Holyrood, said the "final call" would have to be agreed with the executive - which remains opposed to such a move.


    Mr Straw was speaking after meeting First Minister Alex Salmond and Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill.


    It emerged last month that the UK Government had signed a memorandum of understanding on 29 May with Libya covering prisoner exchanges.


    Mr Salmond claimed at the time that the deal could allow Megrahi to serve the remainder of his sentence in Libya and he protested to Mr Blair about a lack of consultation with the executive.


    However, the UK Government insisted the document did not cover the Lockerbie case and that no deal had been signed over the Libyan's future.


    Megrahi has been granted leave to appeal against his conviction for a second time.

    'Ready to consult'
    In response to questions about Megrahi's future, Mr Straw said no deal had yet been done with Libya on prisoner transfers.


    He said the UK Government was "very ready to consult and involve the Scottish Executive in the appropriate level of discussion".


    "A fundamental factor in the decisions that relate to Scotland in any prisoner transfer agreement, if one is agreed, are what the Scottish Parliament and executive want," he said.


    "Are we at UK level going to make decisions relating to where the Lockerbie bomber serves his sentence without the concurrence of the Scottish Executive? No."
    There was an agreement that close levels of co-operation were necessary


    Scottish Executive spokesman




    Mr Straw promised to avoid future rows with the SNP government at Holyrood and said UK ministers would "learn" from the cross-border rift.


    He and Mr Salmond discussed a range of issues, including the attack on Glasgow Airport and the high level of co-operation between the UK and Scottish governments over the anti-terror operation.


    A spokesman for Mr Salmond said it had been a very positive meeting.


    "It was just about ensuring we have the right level of co-operation in the future," he said.


    "There was an agreement that close levels of co-operation were necessary in that instance and equally that it's important we have that in the future."


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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news...459999.0.0.php

    Libyans confirm Megrahi part of Blair deal
    LUCY ADAMS, Chief Reporter


    Libya went into last week's desert talks with Tony Blair firmly believing the transfer of the Lockerbie bomber was on the negotiating table, Middle East sources revealed last night.


    Officials in Tripoli said they had made it clear that moving Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi out of Scotland was the main reason for the discussions, despite repeated Downing Street protestations that his transfer had always been excluded from the memorandum of understanding now signed by the two countries.


    The Whitehall denial echoed a similar statement of rebuttal in October 2005 by the Foreign Office and the Scottish Executive, after The Herald had revealed then that secret talks were under way to allow Megrahi to return to a prison in Libya or another north African country.


    However, former First Minister Jack McConnell yesterday effectively confirmed that such a move had taken place. In a radio interview, he admitted he had been "involved in discussions with this (issue)" and had personally blocked attempts to move Megrahi from Scotland.



    Mr McConnell told Talk107 radio: "Much of what happened in those discussions has to remain private. But personally I was always very keen to retain the right of veto that we had in Scotland as a devolved government over any prisoner transfers. I think you can see from the fact that Mr Megrahi is still in Scotland what the outcome of any of those discussions were."


    First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday intensified the pressure on Mr Blair, saying he wanted a speedy answer to the letter of protest he has written to the Prime Minister over the deal with Libya.


    His spokesman said: "The First Minister is expecting a response to his letter forthwith and certainly before the Prime Minister leaves office. The First Minister's expectation is that the UK government should operate within the concordats agreed in 1999 and is hopeful that will take place with the Prime Minister's successor."


    In Libya, officials confirmed that last week's talks, from their side, had been driven by the desire to return Megrahi, who is serving his 27-year sentence in Greenock Prison after being convicted of the 1988 atrocity in which 270 people were killed.


    In return, the Libyans were offering to release five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor sentenced to death in 1998. Libyan courts have twice found the six guilty of deliberately infecting 400 children with HIV, despite worldwide concerns about the credibility of the case and scientific evidence that put the blame on poor sanitation.


    EU and British negotiators have spent years trying to rescind the verdict.


    A source close to the desert discussions said: "Megrahi was the whole point of the talks as far as the Libyans are concerned. It was made perfectly clear to the British officials involved in the talks that the whole aim for them was to get Megrahi back.


    "The Libyans are hoping that the return of Megrahi will provide the face-saving hook they require to allow them to release the Bulgarians. They are very keen for the Bulgarian situation to come to an end. Part of the new memorandum is to get even stronger guarantees from Tripoli to allow Britain to get rid of suspected terrorists with potential links to al Qaeda.



    That's what the UK gets in return."


    Downing Street yesterday reiterated its claim that the memorandum of understanding had nothing to do with Megrahi. The Prime Minister's spokesman said: "We don't regard it as covering Megrahi - and we made this very clear during the talks in Libya."


    But Scottish Tory leader Annabel Goldie called for a fresh look at the machinery linking the Westminster and Holyrood governments. "The one lesson which is leaping out of this shoddy affair is that relationships between Holyrood and Westminster need urgent reviewing," she said.


    The Scottish Labour Party said: "The communication between officials in Westminster and Scotland could and should have been better."


    Liberal Democrat Nicol Stephen said: "I have written directly today to Advocate General Neil Davidson seeking clarification about his involvement in this situation."


    Meanwhile, Labour MPs at Westminster have expressed their concerns about the way Mr McConnell reacted on Thursday to Mr Salmond's emergency statement.


    One senior MP yesterday told The Herald he believed Mr McConnell had made "an error" and had fallen into a trap laid by Mr Salmond, adding: "If Jack agreed with Alex Salmond without consulting the Foreign Office, then he made an error.


    "We need to have a bit more focus and a bit more discipline before we react."


    © All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/...459985.0.0.php

    Deals done in tents and corridors
    LUCY ADAMS, Chief ReporterJune 09 2007


    THEY met in huge Bedouin tents in the deserts of Libya and in the rather more formal settings of Genevan hotel lobbies. The main topic on the table was how to exchange five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor for the Lockerbie bomber.


    Downing Street and the Foreign Office have denied that plans to transfer Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi were discussed but according to the Libyan side, that was the main reason for the talks in the first place.


    Megrahi, who is serving a 27-year sentence in Greenock Prison after being convicted of the 1988 atrocity in which 270 people were killed, has said he wants to stay until he can prove his innocence. But it would undoubtedly suit certain high-level officials if the whole thing was swept under a large Bedouin carpet.



    The discussions between Abdulati Ibrahim al Obidi, the Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister, Musa Kusa, Libya's foreign intelligence chief, and senior British officials have taken place in secret over the past few months.


    Earlier this year they met in Geneva and set out the draft memorandum of understanding between the two countries, paving the way for suspected Libyan terrorists held in Britain to be returned to their home country.


    The same two Libyan officials were involved in a similar memorandum in 2005. The Herald revealed exclusively then that one of the core reasons for the agreement was to facilitate moves to transfer Megrahi to Libya or a neighbouring Muslim state.


    Again, the Foreign Office denied that Megrahi's situation was under discussion and said he would serve his entire sentence in Scotland.


    Yesterday, however, Jack McConnell, former first minister, indicated that he had been privy to talks about such a transfer and had indeed helped to prevent such a move. Such disparities must make the official spokespeople very uncomfortable indeed.


    Last night, sources close to the discussions confirmed that Tripoli's main motivation for the talks was to agree an exchange of specific prisoners.



    They would free the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor serving life, if Megrahi was allowed to serve the remainder of his life sentence in Libya.


    Libya has come under increasing pressure from the EU to release the aid workers accused of deliberately infecting children with HIV at Benghazi Hospital. The international community and medical authorities widely agree the Benghazi infections were caused by poor hygiene and that the doctor and nurses are scapegoats.


    Sources explained that Tripoli wants an immediate end to the problem and from a public relations point of view, swapping Megrahi for the nurses would help the Libyans to "save face".


    From that perspective, Libya seems to get far more from the deal than the UK. But understanding the machinations of such backroom discussions requires a look at the bigger picture.




    Britain cut official diplomatic links with Gaddafi's regime after the murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher in 1984. They were not restored until 2001. Since then relations have become as warm as the sunshine in Tripoli.


    Prior to the September 11 attacks, Musa Kusa, one of the key deal-brokers of last week's memorandum, was not even allowed to set foot in the UK.
    Kusa is thought to be behind the killing of Libyan dissidents in Britain and was expelled from London in 1980 for orchestrating the murder of a BBC World Service journalist, Mohamed Mustafa Ramadan, outside Regent's Park mosque.


    He was also wanted in France in connection with the downing of a French DC-10 of the UTA airline in 1989 with 170 passengers aboard, an attack similar to the 1988 bombing of Flight 103.


    Branded "the master of terror", he was welcomed back to London in late 2001.


    The rehabilitation of Kusa and dramatic change in relations with Tripoli was seen as thanks for backing for the US coalition against terrorism.


    In 2004, Tony Blair put his personal seal of approval on Libya's return to international respectability by shaking hands with Gaddafi, in a ceremonial Bedouin tent outside Tripoli.


    The handshake came as Mr Blair's office announced that Royal Dutch/Shell had signed a $200m deal to drill for oil and natural gas off the Libyan coast and that BAE Systems, a major British defence contractor, was negotiating to sell civilian airliners to Tripoli.


    Blair's meeting with Gaddafi, described by President Ronald Reagan as the "mad dog of the Middle East", also constituted a diplomatic reward for Libya's agreement to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction programmes and condemn terrorism.


    When Megrahi and Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, his co-accused were sent to Camp Zeist in 1999, the deal agreed stated that if convicted, their sentence should be served in Scotland.


    Fhimah was acquitted after trial, but the conviction of Megrahi was seen as a huge triumph for the Scottish legal establishment and a symbol of changing international relations. However, doubts about Megrahi's guilt have grown ever since.


    Even Lord Fraser of Carmyllie, the former lord advocate who issued the arrest warrant for Megrahi, has admitted he had doubts about the reliability of the main witness in the trial and has said Megrahi should be allowed to leave Scotland to serve the remainder of his sentence in Libya.


    The former Conservative minister described Tony Gauci, the Maltese shopkeeper whose testimony was central in securing the conviction in 2001 as "not quite the full shilling" and "an apple short of a picnic".


    Libya has since, in a very cautiously worded statement, accepted some responsibility for the Lockerbie bombing and paid millions of pounds in reparations to the families.


    The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission is due to publish it's report on Megrahi at the end of this month.

    'Confirming the friendship and strong ties between Libya and Britain'
    MEMORANDUM of Understanding on the pursuit of agreements on judicial co-operation between the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the Government of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.


    Confirming the friendship and strong ties between the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the Government of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Noting the desire of both sides to strengthen judicial co-operation, in the context of our increasing joint efforts in the field of justice and home affairs, and specifically of our recently enhanced co-operation on counter-terrorism.


    The participants have reached an understanding that they will shortly commence negotiations on the following matters:
    Mutual assistance in the field of criminal law
    Mutual legal assistance in the field of civil and commercial law
    Extradition, and
    Prisoner Transfer.


    The two sides will work to conclude the negotiations and prepare these agreements in their final form; in the case of the last-mentioned agreement, working on the basis of the British model agreement on Prisoner Transfer presented recently to the Secretary for Justice during his visit to the United Kingdom of May 22-24 - to be signed within a period not exceeding 12 months from the date of signing this MOU.
    The UK Government will seek to obtain the agreement of all three jurisdictions within the United Kingdom in each of those cases.
    Signed at Sirte on Tuesday, May 29, 2007: the two original texts in Arabic and English have equal validity.
    For Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
    For Government of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.


    © All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=83108

    Libyan Families Haven't Drop Yet Death Demands against Bulgarians

    16 July 2007, Monday

    As Bulgaria and the world expected the final say of Libya's High Judicial Council on the medics' fate all day long, no developments were clear until late into Monday.

    Libya's High Judicial Council delayed by a few hours its long-awaited sitting on Monday to have the final say on the fate of the five jailed Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor.

    The nine-member body, headed by the minister of justice, was to convene at 6 pm local time.

    The political body could approve, reject or cancel the medics' death sentences, which have been confirmed by the Supreme Cassation Court on July 11.

    There are two key documents that should guarantee the council's session will be final.

    The first one is the paperwork petitioning for pardon, signed by the medics. The second is an out of court agreement, reached between the families of the HIV infected children and the defendants, which would pay the relatives of each child USD 1 M in compensation. As a result of the settlement, the Libyan families weer reported on Sunday to have dropped their demands for executing the six medics.

    The relatives were expected to submit Monday morning the official papers that prove they do not want the Bulgarians to be executed.

    It was exactly the relatives' failure to submit this document that forced the council to delay its session, reports say.

    The document was not submitted because the families in Benghazi have not received their blood money yet, the chairman of the children' s relatives association Ramadan al-Fitouri told Darik radio.

    The six medics have been detained since 1999 on charges of deliberately infecting the children with HIV and were sentenced to death in 2004. Following an appeal and a re-trial, they were sentenced to death for a second time last year.
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=83109

    Libya's Judicial Council Skips Bulgarians Case, Convenes Tuesday

    16 July 2007, Monday

    Libya's High Judicial Council, which was to have on Monday the final say on the fate of the five jailed Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, did not include the issue on its agenda, Darik News correspondent reported.

    The nine-member body, headed by the minister of justice, is scheduled to convene again on Tuesday.

    Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry refused to confirm or comment the information.

    As Bulgaria and the world expected the definitive decision of Libya's High Judicial Council on the medics' fate all day long, the timing and place of its session changed several times and no developments were clear until late into Monday. The sitting was eventually held at the luxurious Corinthia hotel in Tripoli.
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6896231.stm

    Profiles: The imprisoned medics


    Hopes are rising that the six foreign medical staff condemned to death in Libya for infecting children with HIV may be freed as part of a financial settlement with the families of the children.


    The medics, who all proclaim their innocence, were arrested eight years ago after an outbreak of HIV at a paediatric hospital in Benghazi.


    A Libyan court has cleared nine policemen and a doctor of torturing the foreign workers into signing confessions.


    All six are Bulgarian citizens with one, an Egyptian-born Palestinian, given citizenship in June 2007.


    Sofia-based journalist Virginia Savova looks at each of their cases for the BBC News website.


    ASHRAF ALHAJOUJ



    Ashraf Alhajouj was a trainee at the al-Fateh Paediatric Hospital in Benghazi when he was arrested on 29 January 1999 along with the five Bulgarian nurses who were also working in the city.


    It took Mr Alhajouj's family 10 months of searching to find the exact jail where he was being held.


    "We were startled when Ashraf came into the room, we simply could not recognise him," his father said in an interview for Bulgarian

    media.
    I was tortured like the rest of the accused and there are marks on the bodies of us all


    Ashraf Alhajouj





    "He had been tortured with electricity and different devices. He had been locked in cages."


    Mr Alhajouj was born in the Egyptian city of Alexandria in 1969 and went to Libya when he was two years old.


    His Egyptian mother Afifa was a computer literacy teacher and his Palestinian father Ahmed was a professor of mathematics.


    Mr Alhajouj has said it is inconceivable he could harm Libyan children.


    "I am innocent on all of the charges," he said at the final court hearing in 2006. "I was tortured like the rest of the accused and there are marks on the bodies of us all."




    Mr Alhajouj's father insists his son is not yet a doctor but a student, as the Libyan authorities claim.


    "If he really is a doctor, then Libya should show his diploma to the world," he said.


    Mr Alhajouj's family also denies claims by the Libyan authorities that at the time of his arrest he lived in a luxurious property in Benghazi, and says he lived on a student campus.


    After Mr Alhajouj's detention, his mother was sacked from her job and his sisters were expelled from university.


    The family left Libya in December 2005 and went to the Netherlands, where they were granted political refugee status.


    On 19 June, 2007 Bulgaria announced that it had granted citizenship to Mr Alhajouj, a decision that would enable him to leave Libya with the rest of the medics, if they are pardoned by the Supreme Judicial Council.


    VALIA CHERVENIASHKA



    Valia Cherveniashka, 52, is a nurse from the small north-west Bulgarian town of Biala Slatina.


    She worked in a hospital in the Libyan city of Tarbouha from between 1984 and 1997 before moving to the al-Fateh Hospital.


    She says she was beaten by Libyan guards but did not confess to infecting the children.


    In 1999, Mrs Cherveniashka's husband, Emil Uzunov, was the first to bring the arrest of the medics to the public's attention in Bulgaria. In 2003, he staged a hunger strike at the Libyan embassy in Sofia.
    If Bulgaria wants to wipe off the shame on its face, it should convict the inquisitors of the medics


    Emil Uzunov
    husband of Valia Cherveniashka




    Mr Uzunov and Mrs Cherveniashka's two daughters, Gergana and Antoaneta, have criticised Sofia's handling of the case, saying dozens of nationals from Poland, Thailand and other countries were also arrested but later released.


    Mr Uzunov plans to initiate court proceedings against Bulgarian government officials, including the former foreign ministers of Bulgaria, Nadezhda Mihailova and Solomon Pasi, for failing to secure the release of the medics.


    "If Bulgaria wants to wipe off the shame on its face, it should convict the inquisitors of the medics," he said.


    Dr Anton Antonov, who was head of the paediatric ward of the hospital in Biala Slatina, where Mrs Cherveniashka first worked, told reporters that in a letter she wrote a month before her arrest, she wrote about the HIV/Aids outbreak in her ward and expressed fear for herself.


    Dr Antonov described Ms Cherveniashka as a very good specialist and a lively person.


    "It's absurd [to think of] her committing such an infernal act," added the doctor.


    SNEZHANA DIMITROVA



    Snezhana Dimitrova, 54, worked as a nurse in two hospitals in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.



    She applied for jobs in Libya in the hope of earning a better salary, so that she could support her family.


    She was arrested six months after her arrival at the al-Fateh hospital in 1998. She says it is inconceivable that a nurse and a mother could commit the crime of which she has been convicted.


    Mrs Dimitrova claimed that during the initial stage of detention she was subjected to torture and inhuman treatment.


    She has diabetes, had a nervous breakdown in 2005 and broke her leg last autumn.


    Her husband George refuses to talk about his wife and family's ordeal.


    Mrs Dimitrova has a daughter, a son and a seven-year-old granddaughter, whom she has only seen in pictures.


    The health of her father, Ivan Klisurski, has suffered during the trial. After suffering a stroke 20 years ago, Mr Klisurski suffered another one after the announcement of the death sentence for his daughter in 2006.


    He has only been able to speak with Mrs Dimitrova on the phone, and in an interview in 2007 he said he thought that he would not live long enough to see her again.



    NASYA NENOVA



    Nasya Nenova, 41, began her career as a nurse at the main hospital in the eastern Bulgarian city of Sliven, where she remained until she left the country to work in Libya.


    She arrived in Libya in 1998 and started working at the al-Fateh. She was arrested just when she was preparing to return to Bulgaria.


    During the investigation, she signed confessions, in which she stated that she had deliberately infected Libyan children in order to receive money.


    At a court hearing in June 2001, Mrs Nenova and co-accused Kristina Vulcheva withdrew their testimony, explaining that they had been coerced by torture to confess to offences they had not committed.
    Libya will trade the Bulgarian medics at the price it wants


    Ivan Nenov
    husband of Nasya Nenova




    Mrs Nenova told her husband Ivan later that she had been beaten with a cable on her hands and feet. As a result she said she could not walk for a week. A month later, she says she was subjected to electric shocks and threatened to be infected with HIV if she did not confess.


    After three months in jail, she tried to commit suicide. Asked by a judge whether her suicide attempt was a result of a guilty conscience, she replied that she had tried to end her life because she could not bear to be tortured.


    Ivan Nenov, an anaesthetist in the Intensive Care Unit of the Sliven's hospital, has strongly criticised the Bulgarian authorities for not succeeding in freeing the medics. He and Antoaneta Uzunova, the daughter of Valya Cherveniashka, were the first relatives to visit the medics in 2001.


    From Libya they issued a joint declaration in which they accused the Bulgarian authorities of hiding the information about the tortures on their relatives for more than a year.


    "Now the authorities are concerned about our relatives, but it is hopelessly late," Ms Uzunova and Mr Nenov said at the time.


    "Libya will trade the Bulgarian medics at the price it wants," Mr Nenov said in 2005.


    Mrs Nenova has had the unanimous support of her colleagues at the city hospital in Sliven throughout the past eight years.


    They have held rallies calling for her and her colleagues' freedom.


    Mrs Nenova has a son who was in secondary school when she was arrested and is now at a university in France.


    VALENTINA SIROPOULO



    Valentina Siropoulo, 48, was a nurse for 18 years in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital of the Bulgarian city of Pazardjik.



    She went to Libya so that she could earn more money to send her only child to university.


    Mrs Siropoulo had been working at the al-Fateh since February 1998.


    She says she is innocent and that she showed compassion to the children in the Aids ward where she worked.


    "They... have done to me so many things but they can't take my innocence from me," she said in court in 2006.
    The belief in good and truth, in the fact that you exist, that there is someone thinking about me, that I want very much to see you, gives me strength to fight the evil and to continue to live


    Valentina Siropoulo




    She said beatings and torture with electric shocks during the investigation left her with partial paralysis to her face and unable to talk for months.


    In her first card to her family after 22 months of detention, she wrote:
    "Hello, dear family. I am allowed to write you a letter, which doesn't mean it will reach you or that there'll be another one. Physically I am relatively fine, but my soul is incurably ill.


    "The belief in good and truth, in the fact that you exist, that there is someone thinking about me, that I want very much to see you, gives me strength to fight the evil and to continue to live."


    Ms Siropoulo's former colleagues from the hospital in Pazardjik have held rallies and silent vigils.


    KRISTINA VALCHEVA



    Kristina Valcheva, 48, arrived in Libya from Bulgaria with her second husband, Dr Zdravko Georgiev, in 1991.


    She was working in the Hauari Hospital in Benghazi when she was arrested over the outbreak of HIV/Aids among children in the Paediatric Hospital.


    Libyan prosecutors say she is the mastermind behind the case, basing their evidence on HIV-infected blood bags found in her house in Libya, although she never worked in the Paediatric Hospital itself.


    Mrs Valcheva has said that during the investigation she was subjected at least 10 times to electric shocks. She was undressed and beaten with an electric cable.
    I'll hold her and won't let her leave my arms for a whole night


    Zorka Nachkova
    mother of Kristina Valcheva




    In February 1999, her husband was also arrested when he went to look for his wife in the police office. Dr Georgiev was detained and accused with the five other Bulgarians although he did not work in the same Paediatric Hospital.


    On the day his wife was sentenced to death in 2004, Dr Zdravko Georgiev was released from jail, but he is still not allowed to leave Libya. He is staying at the Bulgarian Embassy in Tripoli.



    Mrs Valcheva has a 29-year-old son from her first marriage.


    Zorka Nachkova, Mrs Valcheva's mother, says she dreams of the day she returns home.


    "'I'll hold her and won't let her leave my arms for a whole night," she said.
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/...dafi_deal.html

    Gaddafi deal 'will cover Lockerbie bomber'

    By Auslan Cramb 09/06/2007

    Downing Street's claim that a prisoner exchange agreement with Libya did not cover the Lockerbie bomber was dimissed as "ludicrous" yesterday by the Scottish Executive.

    Kenny MacAskill, the Justice Secretary, poured scorn on Westminster's insistence that the "memorandum of understanding" signed by Tony Blair and Col Gaddafi in Libya did not apply to Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi.

    The issue is at the centre of the first major constitutional row between Holyrood and Westminster since the Scottish National Party won the Scottish elections last month.

    Alex Salmond, the First Minister, has protested to the Prime Minister over the agreement, which he claims could lead to Megrahi being transferred from Scotland to his homeland.

    The Libyan secret service agent was found guilty in 2001 of murdering 270 people in 1988 by smuggling a suitcase containing a bomb on to PanAm Flight 103.

    All 259 passengers and crew died, and 11 Lockerbie residents were killed as wreckage rained on the town.

    Megrahi, who says he is innocent, is serving a minimum of 27 years in Greenock prison and Scottish ministers have always insisted that he must complete his sentence in Scotland.

    Mr MacAskill said that Mr Blair's handling of the affair, without the knowledge of the Scottish administration, was "at minimum, discourteous to the First Minister and the Scottish Parliament".

    He added: "There's no mention of Megrahi (in the memorandum) but while we have many people in our prisons. . . we have only one Libyan national in our prisons.

    "So when we're talking about the transfer of Libyan prisoners they are not secreted in Barlinnie, Saughton, Perth or anywhere else.

    "We have only one Libyan national in custody and when we talk about the transfer of prisoners, frankly it is ludicrous to suggest that we are talking in a context other than this major atrocity that was perpetrated on Scottish soil and which was dealt with by a Scottish court and with a sentence provided by Scottish judges."

    Annabel Goldie, leader of the Scottish Tories, said the affair demonstrated that the machinery governing the relationship between Holyrood and Westminster must be reviewed.

    However, Downing Street continued to claim that the agreement, signed last week during Mr Blair's trip to Libya, did not include Megrahi.

    A spokesman said: "It is absolutely incorrect to say a deal has been done. All that the memorandum of understanding says is that we will have further talks about these matters - civil and commercial law, extradition arrangements, prisoner transfer. It concludes absolutely no specific deals.

    "We don't regard it as covering Megrahi, and we made this very clear during the talks in Libya.

    "Even if we did reach some future hypothetical point where a prisoner would be transferred, that would rightly be a devolved matter to be considered by relevant Scottish authorities."

    Hold the phone: the real story behind 'Gaddafigate' crisis
    Eddie Barnes - Scotland on Sunday 10th June 2007

    The biggest constitutional row since devolution has been blamed on the British love of bank holidays, it emerged last night.

    In a farcical twist to 'Gaddafigate' worthy of Yes, Prime Minister, it has been claimed Scotland was not informed of Tony Blair's plans to broker a deal on prisoner transfers from Libya because all civil servants north of the Border were enjoying a day off.

    Senior Whitehall sources claim that officials from the new Ministry of Justice in London did call civil servants in Scotland prior to Blair's trip to Libya last month. But as the day that they rang, Friday, May 25, was an official public holiday in Scotland, the entire Scottish Executive was shut down, and nobody picked up the phone.

    Last week, the failure to make contact led to fury in the Scottish Parliament, as party leaders accused Tony Blair of plotting a secret deal to repatriate the Lockerbie bomber.

    First Minister Alex Salmond said that as Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al Megrahi was in a Scottish jail, ministers should have been told of the ongoing negotiations.

    According to the Whitehall insiders, the 'cock-up' began after the basis for the Memorandum of Understanding was agreed on Wednesday, May 23, in a meeting in London between the Libyan justice minister and his Whitehall counterparts. Officials rang Scotland on Friday, May 25 to let them know, only to discover it was a Scottish holiday.

    The next working day, Monday, was an English Bank Holiday, meaning that all of Whitehall was at home. When both sets of officials were back in, on Tuesday, Blair was already in Libya to meet Gaddafi.

    A senior Scotland Office source said: "The phone call was made by officials from the Ministry of Justice on Friday, May 25. But the person who was supposed to take the call was on holiday. It was as simple as that."

    The claims were met with derision by Scottish Executive sources, who said the bungled attempts to get in touch simply demonstrated the UK government's "amateurish" approach to the affair.

    A source close to Salmond said: "I am afraid the more Downing Street spins, the worse it gets. It's a case of, 'oh what a tangled web we weave'. First they said the memorandum was a draft, that it wasn't signed, that it had nothing to do with prisoner transfer and Mr Megrahi - and now this."

    The First Minister made an emergency statement to Parliament last week on the issue.

    The UK government's embarrassment increased last night after it emerged that, while Scotland was out of the loop, officials in the European Commission were aware of the deal.

    • Kirsty Wark has apologised to Salmond, over her Newsnight interview with him on the Libyan prisoner row.

    The BBC presenter contacted the SNP leader on Friday to say sorry for the "abrupt" way the programme had ended.

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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://www.sundayherald.com/oped/opi..._the_seeds.php

    Salmond made hay out of the Gaddafi deal, but Blair sowed the seeds
    By Iain Macwhirter
    On Downing Street’s cock-up over prisoner transfers with Libya … and tartan Tories

    HE DOESN'T write, he doesn't call, he releases mass murderers the dysfunctional relationship between Alex Salmond and Tony Blair is not only petty and childish, it now constitutes a threat to the union. It's making a nonsense of the constitutional relationships between the two administrations. It's time to grow up.


    It was bad enough that the prime minister was photographed shaking the hand of a dictator, Colonel Gaddafi, last month in the very week he had refused to congratulate the newly elected leader of Scotland's parliament.



    But now it appears that Tony and his new mate were concocting a deal which could have lead to the Lockerbie bomber, Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, convicted of murdering 270 passengers on Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, being released from a Scottish jail and returned home.


    Yes, yes - we now have assurances from Downing Street that this would never have happened - heaven forfend! Salmond should have known that Blair didnotintendthedealtocover al-Megrahi being transferred to a Muslim jail. But if that was the case, why discuss prison transfer at all? Why commit to a signed memorandum promising to work towards such an outcome?



    We know perfectly well what was in Gaddafi's mind during that meeting with Blair. It has been confirmed by Libyan officials that the secret deal, as far as they were concerned, was all about releasing al-Megrahi. Former first minister Jack McConnell added yesterday that he too had been under pressure to spring Greenock's infamous inmate.


    Libya has been lobbying the British government and the UN for years to have al-Megrahi transferred out of Scotland.


    Britain has been eager recently to establish cordial relations with Gaddafi's Libya, not least in order to sell them £9 billion worth of arms and to secure lucrative oil deals. This was why it was prepared to put this side deal on the table - to give Tripoli hope that it might be able to do something about al-Megrahi in future.


    Now, for exposing it, Salmond has been accused by Newsnight's Kirsty Wark of "picking a fight" with London, in an interview which became the subject of a rare BBC apology. One Scottish newspaper said Salmond had "manipulated" a row over a "non story ", another accused the first minister of being: "a Saturday night drunk looking for excuses to bruise his knuckles".


    But hang on a minute. Imagine if the situation had been reversed. What if it had been Salmond who had visited Tripoli, had shaken the hand of Gaddafi and entered into a secret deal over prison transfer - which is a devolved matter within his powers - and had omitted to inform the Foreign Office?



    How would that have been regarded?


    Would Westminster have been so relaxed? Of course not - the UK government would have been livid. And if Salmond had said that it was nothing to do with al-Megrahi, Downing Street and the press would have accused him at best of naivety, at worst of conniving with a dictator to release the Lockerbie bomber.


    Explicit or not, this was the deal: Libya is now free to actively seek that he serve the remainder of his sentence, if not in Libya, then in some jail in a Muslim country. Downing Street's attempts to deny this is only making matters worse. London is being economical with the truth, in traditional imperial style. However, it is no longer dealing with a parish council, but a Scottish government.


    The first minister prepared the ground carefully for last week's emergency statement, and made sure that he had the support, not only of all the opposition party leaders, but also the Scottish law officers, including the Lord Advocate, Elish Angiolini - a Labour appointee. She helped draft the letter of complaint to Blair and her involvement raised this above the level of crude politics.


    It is said that London didn't need to inform the Scottish law officers because no formal talks had begun about al-Megrahi. The memo does make clear that the Scottish Executive would have to approve any prison transfers. But that makes it all the more important that the first minister was kept informed, right from the start, that this process was underway.



    Imagine if the story had leaked? - it has been an open secret in Tripoli.



    Salmond would have been accused of being out of touch, out of his depth, unable to control events.


    According to Scotland Office sources, there was an attempt by officials in the Ministry of Justice to contact the Scottish Executive Justice Department on May 25 - five days before the deal was struck. But there appears to be no record of this (I've asked) and no minutes of anything that was said. Perhaps they left a message on the Scottish Executive voicemail. "Hi, just to let you know we're concocting a deal with Gaddafi and letting him think we might spring al-Megrahi - but don't worry about it. Cheers."


    This call, if it was made, should have been made further up the food chain.



    The PM should have been on the phone to the first minister the moment any memorandum was mooted. "Hi Alex. Look, I know how this might appear, but I want you to know that there will be no question of al Meghrahi's release unless you give your specific authority to it. We're just stringing Gaddafi along, you know how it is. Excitable guy, feels guilty about his boy' - but we've given no assurances about any release."


    The first minister would not then have been able to complain that Scotland was being kept in the dark, and he would have had no grounds for making such a fuss about it. The one justified criticism of Salmond's conduct is that he apparently didn't contact the Foreign Office or the Ministry of Justice after the memo came to light (after a lowly official was tipped off by a colleague in the prison service) to seek clarification and assurances.


    Salmond certainly didn't go to any lengths to calm the issue down and find an amicable, face-saving solution. But why should he have saved Blair's face? After all, the first minister had just been snubbed by the prime minister, after winning a historic Scottish election - treated as if he were someone like Robert Mugabe. If Downing Street had observed the most basic rules of protocol, Salmond would never have been in a position to make complaints.


    The Scottish Executive was right to be furious about the way this affair has been handled. Salmond would have faced a media firestorm if it had become known that he had done nothing to stop the deal. And the truth is that Whitehall officials know perfectly well that this was a monumental and inexcusable cock up. It has been communicated to the first minister that things will be different when the next prime minister takes over. So, maybe something positive will come out of this row after all, once the tears and tantrums are over.
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://news.aol.co.uk/downing-st-in-...08085209990005

    Full text of the Lockerbie deal



    By Joe Quinn, Scottish Press Association


    This is the text of the deal struck between Britain and Libya on May 29, as made public by the Scottish Executive:


    Memorandum of Understanding on the pursuit of agreements on judicial co-operation between the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the Government of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.


    Confirming the friendship and strong ties between the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya and the Government of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland;


    Noting the desire of both sides to strengthen judicial co-operation, in the context of our increasing joint efforts in the field of justice and home affairs, and specifically of our recently enhanced co-operation on counter-terrorism.


    The participants have reached an understanding that they will shortly commence negotiations on the following matters:


    Mutual assistance in the field of criminal law


    Mutual legal assistance in the field of civil and commercial law


    Extradition, and


    Prisoner Transfer.


    The two sides will work to conclude the negotiations and prepare these agreements in their final form; in the case of the last-mentioned agreement, working on the basis of the British model agreement on Prisoner Transfer presented recently to the Secretary for Justice during his visit to the United Kingdom of 22-24 May - to be signed within a period not exceeding twelve months from the date of signing this MOU.


    The UK Government will seek to obtain the agreement of all three jurisdictions within the United Kingdom in each of those cases.


    Signed at Sirte on Tuesday 29 May 2007: the two original texts in Arabic and English have equal validity.


    For Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.


    For Government of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=83166

    BULGARIA WANTS LIBYA TO TRANSFER MEDICS

    17 July 2007, Tuesday

    Bulgaria has made it clear it would approach Libya to transfer the five nurses and a Palestinian doctor to Sofia after the highest judicial body of the North African country commuted their death sentences for life jail.

    Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin told journalists that Sofia will use an agreement with Tripoli on exchange of prisoners and request the transfer of the medics, who have been jailed for more than eight years already on charges of deliberately triggering a HIV outbreak at a Benghazi children's hospital.

    The official request is expected to be prepared and sent by senior prosecutor Boris Velchev as early as Wednesday.

    The decision of High Judiciary Council, termed under Libyan legislation as partial pardoning, was expected even though hopes were high that justice will rule after more than eight years of agony and the six medics will be released.

    The ruling came hours after relatives of the HIV-infected children dropped their demands for execution of the medics as all of them received compensations under a deal that was expected to lead to the defendants' freedom.

    Relatives of the children accepted compensation worth USD 1 M per child. Under Islamic law financial compensation offsets the death penalty.
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    Default Re: Libya: Medics Sentenced To Death

    http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=83168

    Bulgarian Medics' Libyan Defender: Judges' Decision Is Good Outcome

    17 July 2007, Tuesday

    The Libyan defender of the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor, whose death verdicts have been commuted to life imprisonment on Tuesday, said the judges' decision is a good outcome of the case that continued for more than eight years.

    Lawyer Osman Bizanti expressed his hope that the law agreement with Tripoli, saying the defendants could serve their sentences in Bulgaria, will come into effect in a few days and the medics will be transferred to Sofia.

    Bizanti has categorically said the claims of the six medics against their Libyan torturers are to be rejected by Libya's judiciary authorities and the officers will be found not guilty.
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