Ashraf al-Hazouz, the Palestinian doctor who had been jailed for eight years in Libya on accusations of infecting children with the AIDS virus, has filed a complaint with the UN charging he had been tortured in captivity, chicagotribune.com quotes his Dutch lawyers as saying.

After their release in July 2007, al-Hazouz and the Bulgarian nurses said they had been tortured while in detention.

Al-Hazouz's Dutch lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld, said she hoped Libya would formally admit wrongdoing and reach a financial settlement with al-Hazouz, but she said the suit filed with the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva on January 8 was necessary.

"Without a case, you don't have any leverage," chicagotribune.com quoted her as saying.

The UN Human Rights Committee oversees the International Treaty on Civil and Political Rights, which Libya signed. Rulings of the committee were non-binding, but it could recommend that Libya pay damages, chicagotribune.com said.

Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, son of Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi, said in an interview with Arab television station Al-Jazeera that the nurses had been subjected to electric shocks.

According to Zegveld, al-Hazouz had been warned by officials from the Netherlands, Bulgaria and the European Union not to take legal action against Libya, warning that this could undermine the improvement in relations between Libya and the West and mightjeopardise other foreign health workers in Libya, chicagotribune.com said.