Libya sentenced six people to die after their conviction for infecting over 400 children with HIV. The problem? They didn’t do it.
The medics have protested their innocence throughout, retracting confessions that they said were obtained under torture and arguing that they are being made scapegoats for unhygienic hospitals.
The defence team told the court that the HIV virus was present in the hospital, in the town of Benghazi, before the nurses began working there in 1998.
Medical experts including the French co-discoverer of the HIV virus had testified on their behalf.
Oxford University in the UK said the verdict ran counter to findings by scientists from its Zoology Department.
A research team had concluded that “the subtype of HIV involved began infecting patients long before March 1998, the date the prosecution claims the crime began”, a statement from the university said.
This story is as bizarre as it is tragic. Among other things, it’s also further demonstration that Western-style civil society has a long way to go before it takes firm root in the middle east — that whole “judgement without justice” thing just doesn’t cut it.
Of course, since we ourselves live in a country in which as many as 50% of the people currently on death row may have been wrongly convicted, maybe we should applaud the Libyans on their progress.
I’ve never been a supporter of the death penalty … this type of thing certainly makes you think, doesn’t it?
Now Playing: Episode 354
Obama and McCain get ready for the conventions, news from Georgia, Russia and Pakistan, the wages of the War on Drugs, and finally, WA’s Governors race gets ugly.
Links Mentioned: The case for not surging in Afghanistan … that drug “bust.”
Professor, I’m surprised you declined to take the opportunity to blame Bush for this one, too!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/06/23/national/w125333D63.DTL
Ha! Just assume that Bush is the root of all evil …
Seriously, Bush is a man whose legacy is going to be fought over for a long, long time. Was he noble but incompetent? An Illuminati-connected conspirator? A well-intended goober used by the dark eminences with whom he surrounded himself? Just a yabo with a good education? Who knows?
I think a fascinating play could be written painting Bush in a highly sympathetic light. Maybe even a musical. I’m serious … think of how much buzz that would get, how delightfully twisted would be the knickers of the left’s fine and good as they dutifully bought their regional theater season tickets only to find a laudatory masterpiece of the man lately President.
But, seriously, back to the original point. You mean to tell me you’ve never soured on a person so completely that they truly can do nothing right in your eyes? Yeah, it’s like that with Bush and me.