Libyan families receive compensation in AIDS case

TRIPOLI (AFP) - The families of Libyan children infected with the AIDS virus said on Tuesday they had started receiving compensation, a move that could result in a reprieve for six foreign medics convicted in the case.

The news came as Libya's top body was to meet on Tuesday to decide whether to uphold, modify or annul the death sentence against the five Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor that was confirmed by the Supreme Court last week.

"The families received their cheques overnight and started to cash them this morning," the families' spokesman Idriss Lagha told AFP.

The Kadhafi Foundation involved in mediating a resolution to the case has said the families had agreed to compensation of about one million dollars per child.

The medics, who have been behind bars since 1999, were convicted of deliberately injecting 438 children with HIV-tainted blood, but Lagha has said the number of victims has risen to about 460 with several mothers now infected.