TRIPOLI, Dec 30 (Reuters) - A Palestinian woman died of an AIDS-related illness at a Libyan hospital on Saturday, taking to 57 the number of victims of an HIV outbreak in the late 1990s blamed on six foreign medics, a local support group said. Maha Mahmood Shams, 18, died in hospital in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, one-and-a-half years after her brother died from AIDS, said Idriss Naga, chairman of the Association for Libyan HIV-Infected Children. Both were among 426 children who contracted HIV while they were patients at a hospital in the eastern city of Benghazi. Of eight Palestinians infected, Shams was the fifth to die, Naga said. Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death by a Libyan court on Dec. 19 for deliberately infecting the children, setting off a storm of protests from Western governments and rights groups. All six proclaim their innocence. Late on Friday, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi defended the court's verdict, the culmination of a seven-month retrial, and suggested the medics may have acted on the orders of Libyan or foreign intelligence services. Some Western scientists say negligence and poor hospital hygiene are the real culprits and the medics are scapegoats. The case is embroiled in power politics and analysts say a deal to avoid the executions is still likely given that the ruling could set back oil producer Libya's hopes of better ties with the West.
