the marvels of foreign aid
20-Jun-2007, 04:51 PM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: scarborough
Posts: 6,394
the marvels of foreign aid
Libyan court sets ruling date for 6 convicted in HIV case
Six Bulgarian health workers jailed and sentenced to death for deliberately infecting children with AIDS launched their final appeal Wednesday before Libya's Supreme Court, as Washington and the European Union also stepped up efforts for the medics' release.
CBC News
The court set July 11 as the date it will rule on the appeal from the six - five nurses and one Palestinian doctor - all of whom have been imprisoned since 1999 on charges they gave 426 children tainted blood during transfusions.
"I ask you, the just court, to restore freedom to these women who have been deprived of it for eight years," Bulgarian lawyer Plamen Yalnazov told the court Wednesday. The court also heard arguments from prosecutors.
The convicted medics have long maintained their innocence, claiming they confessed only after undergoing torture. Bulgaria has contended the children were infected by unhygienic practices at the hospital in eastern Libya and during the trial, experts testified that the blood was contaminated a year before the Bulgarians began working there.
The case has complicated Libya's efforts to rebuild its ties with the West, which has been putting pressure on the North African country to free the defendants. U.S. President George W. Bush visited Bulgaria, saying he was "deeply concerned about the plight of the nurses" and wished for them to be "allowed to return to their families."
Possible compensation deal in works
U.S. and EU officials have been trying to strike a deal with Libya that could see Western aid for the children's future medical care. Political analysts have said that if the Supreme Court confirms the death sentences on July 11, as is expected, Libya's High Judicial Council would likely let the nurses return to Bulgaria in exchange for financial compensation to the families. The families want $14 million US each.
Although Bulgaria set up a fund with the EU and the U.S. to give the families financial support, it has refused to pay, saying it would be an admission of guilt.
Bulgaria said on Tuesday it had granted citizenship to the Palestinian doctor, Ashraf Alhajouj. "In case of a favourable development in the case, he can be brought back to Bulgaria with the nurses under the legal agreement with Libya," Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin told reporters.
Alhajouj worked with the five nurses - Nasya Nenova, Snezhana Dimitrova, Valentina Siropolu, Christiana Valcheva and Valia Cherveniashka - during the 1990s at a hospital in Libya's second-largest city, Benghazi.
-----------
Would you as leader of Bulgaria just tell then to go **** themselves if they ever want any aid again? isn't this good enough reason for other countries to withdraw all aid?
Six Bulgarian health workers jailed and sentenced to death for deliberately infecting children with AIDS launched their final appeal Wednesday before Libya's Supreme Court, as Washington and the European Union also stepped up efforts for the medics' release.
CBC News
The court set July 11 as the date it will rule on the appeal from the six - five nurses and one Palestinian doctor - all of whom have been imprisoned since 1999 on charges they gave 426 children tainted blood during transfusions.
"I ask you, the just court, to restore freedom to these women who have been deprived of it for eight years," Bulgarian lawyer Plamen Yalnazov told the court Wednesday. The court also heard arguments from prosecutors.
The convicted medics have long maintained their innocence, claiming they confessed only after undergoing torture. Bulgaria has contended the children were infected by unhygienic practices at the hospital in eastern Libya and during the trial, experts testified that the blood was contaminated a year before the Bulgarians began working there.
The case has complicated Libya's efforts to rebuild its ties with the West, which has been putting pressure on the North African country to free the defendants. U.S. President George W. Bush visited Bulgaria, saying he was "deeply concerned about the plight of the nurses" and wished for them to be "allowed to return to their families."
Possible compensation deal in works
U.S. and EU officials have been trying to strike a deal with Libya that could see Western aid for the children's future medical care. Political analysts have said that if the Supreme Court confirms the death sentences on July 11, as is expected, Libya's High Judicial Council would likely let the nurses return to Bulgaria in exchange for financial compensation to the families. The families want $14 million US each.
Although Bulgaria set up a fund with the EU and the U.S. to give the families financial support, it has refused to pay, saying it would be an admission of guilt.
Bulgaria said on Tuesday it had granted citizenship to the Palestinian doctor, Ashraf Alhajouj. "In case of a favourable development in the case, he can be brought back to Bulgaria with the nurses under the legal agreement with Libya," Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin told reporters.
Alhajouj worked with the five nurses - Nasya Nenova, Snezhana Dimitrova, Valentina Siropolu, Christiana Valcheva and Valia Cherveniashka - during the 1990s at a hospital in Libya's second-largest city, Benghazi.
-----------
Would you as leader of Bulgaria just tell then to go **** themselves if they ever want any aid again? isn't this good enough reason for other countries to withdraw all aid?
21-Jun-2007, 09:29 AM
#4
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Saskatoon
Posts: 5,558
On a related aid topic. I was reading the other day that Canada gives millions in aid to wealthy countries like Ireland, Brazil, Poland, China. It added up to something like $2b a year. What a waste of $!
