Mick Hartley

We await confirmation from Libya’s High Judicial Council, but it now looks – as widely expected – that the death sentence on the Benghazi Six will not be carried out:

Libya has begun distributing funds to the families of children with HIV under a deal that could free foreign medics condemned to death for infecting them.

Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were convicted of deliberately starting a HIV epidemic at a children’s hospital. They deny this.

Libya’s Supreme Court last week upheld the death sentences, placing their fate with the High Judicial Council.

The council, a semi-political body, is due to meet on Tuesday.

It has the power to commute sentences or issue pardons.

The families of the infected children recently accepted a compensation deal worth $1 million per child.

The BBC’s Rana Jawad, in the Libyan capital Tripoli, says that under Islamic law financial compensation offsets the death penalty.

The deal indicates that it is highly unlikely that the death penalty verdicts will be upheld, she adds.

At the weekend the medics signed a letter of request for pardon and mercy, as well as a document ruling out any further legal action against the Libyan state over the prison time they have so far served.

A spokesman for the families, Idriss Lagha, told Reuters news agency that more than half of the families had received compensation so far.

“When all the families have received the money, a deal will be announced… and a declaration by the families will be sent to the High Judiciary Council, which will then be authorised to take the appropriate decision on the medics,” he said.

Othman Bizanti, a leading lawyer for the nurses, said he had “great hope” the council would decide to free the medics.

It’d be interesting to know where this blood money is coming from.

Update: the death sentences have been revoked:

Death sentences on six foreign medics convicted of infecting Libyan children with HIV have been commuted to life in prison by Libya’s top legal body.

Relatives of the 438 children earlier dropped calls for the death penalty, after accepting compensation reportedly worth $1m (£500,000) per child…

The payout is reportedly coming from an international fund which the Libyan government, the European Union and other organisations are contributing to.