The death sentences for the Bulgarian nurses and the Pakistani doctor held in Libya have been reversed and sent back for a new trial. Meanwhile Libya's government negotiates for fines against Bulgaria and Pakistan equal to the fines Libya paid for the terrorist attack on Flight 103, a plane that was exploded over Scotland with many Americans aboard.
These present charges are ludicrous. Six people held on trumped up charges have spent seven years in prison, while Libya enjoys a good reputation because it owned up to culpability as a state sponsor of terrorism for the downing of an airplane.
Libya won respect in the world for finally acknowledging that it had sponsored the terrorist attack on Flight 103. Libya paid to make amends for each of the deaths. Now in an obviously trumped up charge that Bulgarian nurses and a Pakistani doctor deliberately murdered Libyan children by infecting them with AIDS, Libya is extorting money from the governments of Bulgaria and Pakistan and insists that the sum for each child's death be equal to the million paid in the terrorist attack. Libya's leader seems to think this is a simple matter of suing and counter suing, getting even for the earlier payments by making the two situations out to be similar, which they decidedly are not.
Sadly, Libya got itself into the good graces of the Bush Administation with its alligator tears for sponsoring terrorism. The current extortion efforts are a huge violation of any supposed understanding on the earlier settlement.