Libya's supreme court has overturned the death sentences against five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of infecting Libyan children with the AIDS virus.
The supreme court's presiding judge on Sunday ordered a lower court to retry the case, saying there were "irregularities" in the arrest and interrogation of the defendants.
The six medical workers were arrested in 1999 and sentenced to death in 2004 on charges of knowingly infecting more than 400 Libyan children with the AIDS virus.
Medical experts say the infections started before the nurses arrived and was probably caused by poor hygiene at the hospital.
Bulgarian officials welcomed the ruling as a positive sign that Libya recognized what they called serious procedural breaches in the trial.
