'Tripoli Six' Libya HIV death penalty trial
Resources page

For fuller coverage see my Blog reports on Libya case

19 December 2006: death sentence confirmed
(see Libya condemns Tripoli Six to death )

Chronology of the case: Feb 1999 - Nov 2006 (from Reuters)

Status: Verdict 19 December.
Now appeal to Supreme Court.

Send suggested additions to Declan Butler
See also: Nature special focus on Libya case and my blog

Update: The sheer scale of the international political response and media coverage since the 19 December verdict is too massive to include here. I am compiling a selection of it, and will post to a new page --- I will add a link here soon.

Articles in the scientific press

Nature
For free access to these go to: Nature special focus on Libya case
06/12/06: Molecular HIV evidence backs accused medics
06/12/06: Molecular epidemiology: HIV-1 and HCV sequences from Libyan outbreak
05/11/06: Libya death-penalty trial ends
02/11/06: An open letter to Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi -- from 114 Nobel laureates
01/11/06: Libya HIV trial conclusion delayed
26/10/06: A shocking lack of evidence: article on prosecution evidence
12/10 06: Forgotten plights
12/10 06: Protests mount against Libyan trial
02/10/06: Dirty needles, dirty dealings
25/09/06: Bloggers rally for liberation of the 'Tripoli Six'
21/09/06: Libya's travesty
21/09/06: Lawyers call for science to clear AIDS nurses in Libya

Science
24/10/06: Pressure Mounts on Libya to Free Medical Workers

PLoS
26/10/06: Six imprisoned health care worker in Libya are pawns in a far larger strategic game, with enormous repercussions

The Lancet
24/11/06 Free the Benghazi Six

Defence team response to end of trial on 4 November

Document in English, and in French

Some recent mainstream media coverage

TV5
09/12/06 Headline TV news
(& in English on France24)

BBC
06/12/06 Study backs Libya HIV case medics

Reuters
06/12/06 New scientific evidence in Libyan HIV court case

New York Times
14/10/06 A Medical-Legal Travesty in Libya
26/10/06 Libya Sends Children With AIDS to Hospitals in Europe

Washington Post
06/12/06 Study Disputes Case in Libyan AIDS Trial
29/10/06 A Travesty in Libya

Islam Online
30/10/06 Trial in Libya: The Final Verdict
30/10/06 Execution in Libya for Health Workers

The Economist
02/11/06 Libya | Bad blood

NPR (Audio)
04/11/06 Rich Roberts, 1993 Nobel Laureate
03/11/06 Bob Gallo, US AIDS researcher
01/11/06 BBC correspondent

Voice of America
06/12/06 New Evidence Exonerates Foreign Medics in Libyan AIDS Trial
26/10/06 Janine Jagger, an epidemiologist who heads the International Health Care Worker Safety Center at the University of Virginia.

Declan Butler on:
19/10/06 WNYC
30/10/06 BBC
03/11/06 Top headlines on Bulgarian nation TV
17/11/06 Europe1
TV5
14/12/06 RTE

Multimedia

Video
1h22min documentary, Injection!; free on Google Video
Photographs
Human Rights Watch

Organizations that have recently made public appeals in the current trial

The links below go directly to the relevant appeal page

114 Nobel laureates affirm need for fair trial in letter to Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi
World Medical Association and the International Council of Nurses
Collegium Ramazzini
New York Academy of Sciences
The Federation of the European Academies of Medicine (FEAM)
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Amnesty International
Physicians for Human Rights
Royal Society and other UK bodies
44 scientists in Science
International Healthcare Worker Safety Center, University of Virginia

Organizations that have recently made private appeals

The International Human Rights Network of Academies and Scholarly Societies
US National Academies of Sciences' Committee on Human Rights (CHR)
American Chemical Society Committee on International Activities Subcommittee on Scientific Freedom and Human Rights

Past alerts

March 2005, PHR, International Human Rights Groups Visit Bulgarian Nurses...
Bulgarian and Palestinian Health Professionals Sentenced to Death in Libya
Amnesty Internationals's extensive coverage
AAAS coverage

Sample letters

Letter writing guide from Amnesty International -- please follow its wise advice
Automatic letter generating software for the Libya case
Letter by UK scientists to the London Times
Centre for Nursing Advocacy
Adventures in Ethics and Science blog
Open Reading Frame blog

Useful addresses to send letters to (click here)

Political positions (to be completed)

Council of Europe (17/11/2006, 2005)

Human rights reports on Libya

Amnesty International 06 report on Libya
Human Rights Watch 06 report on Libya

Past letters

A 2004 letter from Montagnier to Mouammar Gaddafi asking him to pardon the Tripoli six
A 2004 letter from dozens of virologists to Mouammar Gaddafi.

Other resources

Nature special focus on Libya case
My personal blog, with regular updates, http://declanbutler.info/blog/
Wikipedia page

Sources for this page

AAAS
Effect Measure
The Questionable Authority
My personal blog, http://declanbutler.info/blog/

Scientific papers/reports

1. A 2003 independent scientific report on the matter by Luc Montagnier, whose group at the Pasteur Institute in Paris discovered HIV, and Vittorio Colizzi, an AIDS researcher at Rome’s Tor Vergata University, which concluded the innocence of the medics, and that the infections were caused by poor hospital hygiene.

2. U. Visco-Comandini et al., Monophyletic HIV Type 1 CRF02-AG in a Nosocomial Outbreak in Benghazi, Libya, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, Vol. 18, No. 10 : 727 -732 (2002)

Abstract
A cluster of HIV-1 infection has been identified in Libya in 1999, involving 402 children admitted to "ElFath" Children's Hospital in Benghazi (BCH) during 1998 and 19 of their mothers. Nosocomial transmission has been indicated as responsible for the spread of infection. Out of this group, 104 children and 19 adult women have been followed at the National Institute for Infectious Diseases L. Spallanzani in Rome during 1 year. At BCH, all children had received intravenous infusions but not blood or blood products. A single child receiving a blood transfusion in 1997 and the 17 infected mothers were never hospitalized in Benghazi. In addition, two nurses were diagnosed as HIV-1 infected. In 40 subjects out of this group HIV-1 gag, env, and pol fragments were amplified and sequenced. The phylogenetic analyses showed that a monophyletic recombinant HIV-1 form CRF02-AG was infecting all of the HIV-1-seropositive patients admitted at BCH with no close similarities to the other CRF02-AG reported to GenBank. A different strain was found in the child infected by blood transfusion. The data thus suggest a highly contagious nosocomial spread of HIV-1 infection and possibly transmission of the virus from child to mother during breastfeeding in connection with primary HIV-1 infection.

3. S. Yerly et al., Nosocomial Outbreak of Multiple Bloodborne Viral Infections, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, 184, 369–372 (2001)

Abstract
In resource-limited countries, nosocomial transmission of bloodborne pathogens is a major public health concern. After a major outbreak of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in ∼400 children in 1998 in Libya, we tested HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV), and hepatitis B virus (HBV) markers in 148 children and collected epidemiological data in a subgroup of 37 children and 46 parents. HIV infection was detected in all children but one, with HCV or HBV coinfection in 47% and 33%, respectively. Vertical transmission was ruled out by analysis of parents’ serology. The children visited the same hospital 1–6 times; at each visit, invasive procedures with potential blood transmission of virus were performed. HIV and HCV genotypic analyses identified a HIV monophyletic group, whereas 4 clusters of HCV sequences were identified. To our knowledge, this is the largest documented outbreak of nosocomial HIV transmission.

Addresses

His Excellency Mu'ammar al-Gaddafi
Leader of the Revolution
Office of the Leader of the Revolution
Tripoli
Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
LIBYA
Salutation: Your Excellency

His Excellency Muhammad Misrati
Secretary of the People's Committee for Justice and General Security
Secretariat of the People's Committee for Justice and General Security
Tripoli
Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
Libya
Salutation: Your Excellency

Dr. Muhammad 'Abduallah al-Harari
Secretary for Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the General Peoples' Congress
P.O. Box 84662
Tripoli
Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya
LIBYA
Salutation: Dr. Abduallah al-Harari

Mr. Ali Suleiman Aujali
Minister
Libyan Liaison Office
2600 Virginia Ave. NW
Suite 705
Washington, DC 20037
Fax: 202-944-9606
Salutation: Mr. Minister

Ali Aujali, Head of Mission
Embassy of the Great People's Jamahirya
2600 Virginia Ave. NW
Suite 705
Washington, DC 20037

Addresses from Mike Dunford's blog

Libyan UN Mission.
Mission of Libya to the United Nations
309 - 315 East 48th Street,
New York, NY 10017
Phone: The phone number for the UN mission is: (212) 752-5775

Congress
"Get in touch with your own representatives. Feel free to remind them that you vote in their districts (if this is true.) Contact them even if their political views are totally opposed to your own, and particularly if they also sit on a key committee. "

As long as you know your zip code, this website will quickly provide you with the contact information for your representatives.

3: Key congressional committees.
Contact the majority and minority leaders of the House Committee on International Relations and the Senate Foreign Relations Committees.

Senate:
Committee Chair: Richard Lugar
Ranking Member: Joseph Biden

Mailing Address:
U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-6225

Majority Phone: (202) 224-4651
Minority Phone: (202) 224-3953

House:
Chair: Henry Hyde
Ranking Member: Tom Lantos

Mailing Address:
House Committee on International Relations
2170 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Other contacts:
Phone: (202) 225-5021
Fax: (202) 225-2035
E-Mail: HIRC@mail.house.gov

4: Executive Branch Officials.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

Main Switchboard:
202-647-4000

President George Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
comments@whitehouse.gov

'Tripoli Six' Libya HIV death penalty trial Resources page