3 May 2012
Human Rights Committee holds Libya responsible for treatment of Bulgarian national
The Human Rights Committee found that Libya has violated the rights of a Bulgarian doctor of Palestinian origin under the ICCPR. Ashraf el Hagog was at the centre of the Libyan AIDS scandal, in which he and five Bulgarian nurses were accused of deliberately infecting 426 babies with HIV. The HRC found violations of Articles 7, 9 and 14 ICCPR. It considered that Libya had to provide Al Hagog with an effective remedy, including providing him with appropriate reparation, including compensation, and initiating criminal prosecution against those responsible for the treatment.
Only a few weeks earlier a Dutch court had awarded compensation claims against the individual authors of the acts (see: SHARES News | Dutch court awards claim against 12 former Libyan government officials for torture).