Libya's highest judicial body said on Tuesday it had commuted the death sentences against six foreign medics to life imprisonment. Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor are accused of intentionally infecting patients with HIV. "The High Judicial Council decided to commute the death sentences against the five Bulgarian nurses and the Palestinian doctor to life-imprisonment terms," the council said in a brief statement quoted by the Associated Press. The decision was a "positive step forward" but not an end to the ordeal, a senior U.S. State Department official said Tuesday. "We are encouraged at the commutation of the death sentences and we hope they will result in a way to let the medics return home," said senior State Department official David Welch. Earlier in the day, a financial settlement was announced that appeared to clear the way for the change in sentence. Libya has distributed funds to more than half the Libyan families of children with HIV under a deal involving the medics who allegedly infected them, a spokesman for the families said on Tuesday.
