Ministers to seek release of ‘Tripoli six’

Foreign ministers meeting next week (22-23 January) are expected to warn Libya that the death sentences imposed on five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor - the Tripoli six - must be lifted before "relations between the Union and Libya can further develop".

The ministers are expected to call for an "urgent conclusion of the judicial process" and a "fair and prompt solution leading to the release" of the medical workers, according to a draft of the meeting’s conclusions.

It will be the first time EU foreign ministers have met since the court ruling on 19 December, handed down after a retrial on charges that the medical workers deliberately infected more than 400 children with HIV/AIDS.

The action in the Council of Ministers will follow a vote in the European Parliament today (18 January) on a resolution, which "calls on the Commission and the Council to consider, in the absence of a positive resolution of the case, a revision of the common policy of engagement with Libya in all relevant fields as the Union would deem appropriate".

The resolution says that "there is strong evidence that torture has been used in prison against the defendants in order to extract false confessions; whereas numerous other flagrant violations of the defendants’ rights have also been committed".

The European Commission is also continuing pressure behind the scenes through "political and other contacts", according to one official. External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner wrote to Abdul Ati al-Obeidi, the Libyan secretary for European affairs, late last month calling for a resolution to the case and pointing to scientific evidence which showed that the HIV strain which infected the children was present in the hospital before the Bulgarian nurses and Palestinian doctor arrived.

But some echo the recent views of Belgium’s Foreign Minister, Karel De Gucht, that the EU should do more and impose sanctions on Libya.

A spokeswoman for Ferrero-Waldner said this was not being considered. "What kind of sanctions? We don’t have a contractual relationship with Libya, we don’t have an aid relationship with them. And we are not speculating on a negative outcome, we are hoping for a positive outcome," she said.

Amnesty International said the EU could show it was serious about the problem by suspending co-operation it has with Libya on trade and stopping joint action on illegal immigration. "If the EU said ‘bugger trade, bugger immigration’ it would show it was not prepared to accept this in any way," said Dick Oosting, director of Amnesty’s EU office.

Foreign ministers meeting next week (22-23 January) are expected to warn Libya that the death sentences imposed on five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor - the Tripoli six - must be lifted before "relations between the Union and Libya can further develop".