"Tripoli Six" condemned to death

The evidence, a remarkable bit of evolutionary detective work, said "not guilty."

By examining viral extracts from some of the children, Oliver Pybus of the University of Oxford and his colleagues were able to work backwards to establish that specific mutations in 40 per cent of the HIV cases evolved before the nurses arrived at the Al-Fateh Hospital in Benghazi in March 1998. Likewise, 70 per cent of the children with hepatitis C, which can also be spread through dirty needles, contracted it before the arrival of the nurses (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature44836a). The analysis concludes that both viruses spread through poor hospital hygiene.

The Libyan court, though, in need of a scapegoat, declared the Tripoli Six--five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor--guilty, and sentenced them to death, with only one more shot at an appeal.

Effect Measure calls it "extortion." PZ Myers curses Libya's "barbarity." Contact your Congressional representative, and call on them to pressure the Libyan government to reverse this miscarriage of justice.