Bulgarian nurses case still pending

TRIPOLI, Libya, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- Libya's judicial authorities will have final say in the case of Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death for transmitting HIV to children, officials said.

Libyan Prime Minister Shukri Ghanem told UPI Tuesday the judiciary is totally independent and will not be influenced by outside parties when it decides the fate of the convicted nurses.

"Calls by the General People's Congress (parliament) to impose the harshest punishment against the nurses will not affect the proceedings of this case by the judicial authorities," Ghanem said.

The five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death by a court in Benghazi last May after being convicted of transmitting HIV virus to 400 Libyan children.

The nurses' lawyers appealed the ruling before the Higher Court.