The Libyan court will pass its final judgment on six Bulgarian medics on trial there on September 22. The court made the announcement after hearing the closing arguments of the prosecution and the defence on Sunday.

The medics are standing trial on charges of deliberately infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the HIV virus. Nurses Kristiyana Vulcheva, Nassya Nenova, Valentina Siropoulo, Valya Chervenyashka and Snezhana Dimitrova, and Dr Zdravko Georgiev are also accused of actions conflicting with the norms and traditions of Libya.

The main charges are: causing an epidemic by injecting 393 children with the HIV virus; premeditated murder by using substances that cause death; and involvement in a conspiracy against Libya. The rest of the charges include adultery, trade in foreign currency, and production, distribution and use of alcohol. If convicted, they could be sentenced to death.

On Sunday, the court gave the defence three weeks to submit all written documents on the case. The court has allowed relatives and the lawyers to periodically visit the defendants, but refused to release them on bail.

The hearing was adjourned somewhat hurriedly, after the judge interrupted Bulgarian lawyer Vladimir Sheitanov. Using his right to reply to the prosecutor's arguments, Sheitanov invited 25 HIV-infected Libyan children to spend a holiday in Bulgaria at his own expense and at the expense of the defendants' relatives. As a result, the judge interrupted the Bulgarian lawyer, refused to hear the rest of the counsels for the defence, did not allow the defendants to speak, and read out the rulings of the court.

Tensions in the courtroom mounted when the guards separated Georgiev from the rest of the defendants and made him take a seat alone at the bottom of the cage. Shortly after, Bulgarian cameramen were ordered to stop filming the proceedings.

The Libyan lawyer of the Bulgarian defendants, Osman Bizanti, presented a very strong case for the defence, refuting one by one all the charges against his clients and moving for their acquittal. He argued that while in police custody, Nenova and Vulcheva were allegedly forced to make confessions during 90 days of psychological and physical torture - the police held them for a period much longer than the seven days provided by the law. Nenova and Vulcheva also revealed they had been put under incredible pressure, Bizanti said, citing as evidence Nenova's suicide attempt.

Bizanti assumed that the infections occurred through negligence and described the poor hygiene at the Benghazi Children's Hospital. He quoted a Libyan doctor as saying at the previous court hearing that the hospital would have been closed if all rules of hygiene were to be observed. Bizanti also quoted the opinion of World Health Organization (WHO) experts, as well as a Libyan physician who is in charge of the National AIDS Control Laboratory, who said they believed that the hospital lacked the appropriate hygienic conditions.

Bizanti promised to submit documents to the court proving that the infections did not spread in the way alleged by the prosecution.