It was alleged that these health workers deliberately spread HIV amongst 426 children in the hospital, and caused the subsequent death of 52 of these children.

The medics were accused of making false accusations that Libyan officials had tortured them to extract confessions in an investigation into HIV infections at Benghazi Children's Hospital where they worked.

IAS President, Dr Pedro Cahn pointed to evidence presented, which confirmed that the doctor and nurses were not responsible for the spread of HIV at Benghazi Hospital, and said this case represented a failure of the Libyan justice system.

"Both Luc Montagnier, the co-discoverer of HIV, and Vittorio Colizzi of Rome University have testified that the HIV infections pre-dated the defendants' arrival at the hospital. In addition, a study of the children's blood conducted by Oxford University has shown that the sub-type of HIV involved was present in the blood of patients long before the arrival of the defendants. However, this testimony was disregarded during the trial", said Dr Cahn.

Dr Cahn said he continued to hold out hope that the reported negotiations between the European Union and the Libyan government would result in the release of these health workers.

Nurses from more than 80 countries represented at the global conference of the International Council of Nurses (ICN) also called for a just, fair and expeditious treatment of the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian physician.