Bulgarian nurses seek delay in Libya AIDS trial

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2006

TRIPOLI (AFP) — Lawyers for five Bulgarian nurses on trial with a Palestinian doctor for infecting children with the AIDS virus have asked for more time to call defence witnesses at a hearing in the Libyan capital.

Attorney Othman al-Bizanti asked the judge to give him the necessary time to fly in the 26 witnesses whom the defence intend to call from the eastern city of Benghazi where the children were infected.

The city is more than 1,000 kilometres (650 miles) from Tripoli.

Judge Mahmud al-Huweissa agreed Tuesday to adjourn the trial to July 4 and to hold fortnightly rather than weekly hearings as he had ordered when the trial opened on June 13.

Huweissa had said he was making the order "because this case has dragged on too long", in a move...