A Libyan court sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death  on Tuesday, accusing them of deliberately infecting hundreds of children with the HIV virus. The defendants, however, insist that the infection of 426 children was the result of unhygienic conditions at the Libyan hospital where they worked.

The ruling was the second verdict in the case, and the last remaining appeal available to the Bulgarians is at Libya's Supreme Court. The verdict has prompted a wave of international outrage, and Western governments are accusing the court of using the foreign medical staff as scapegoats for poor conditions at the hospital.

The case has set off a diplomatic crisis in the European Union, which Bulgaria is set to join in January. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, currently in Helsinki for talks over Germany's upcoming EU Presidency, called the court's ruling "a terrible verdict," and said she hoped Libyan authorities would "give them a chance" for a fair trial.

In Libya, however, the families of the infected children, 52 of whom have already died of AIDS, support the court's verdict. In demonstrations, they have urged Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to "reject pressure from the West."

The German press on Wednesday echoed the widespread opinion that the medics are the victims of a show trial. The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"If there is such a thing as a modern witch trial, then we have been following it for the last seven years in Tripoli, where everything is being fought for, just not justice."

"In the trial over the infection of 426 children with the AIDS virus, confessions were extorted, expert opinions ignored, verdicts passed and then overturned again. But it was never about the accused. Rather, the trial reflects the confusing time travel of the state of Libya under its very amorphous ruler Gadhafi. Over the last seven years, this Moammar Gadhafi has mutated from a despot and godfather of terrorism into a model Muslim . Now he pretends to be the Arab rediscovery of the West. The revolutionary leader's message to his people has also changed over the years: Seven years ago, there was no AIDS in the country; therefore the virus must have been dragged in from the outside, presumably in the course of a CIA conspiracy. And today, Libya is a constitutional state with an independent judiciary."

"Gadhafi's problem lies in the contradiction of these messages: a state based on the rule of law would have to acquit the accused, then the AIDS propaganda would be debunked. The circumstances of the conviction prove that Libya is obviously not based on the rule of law. A solution? There will be one -- with money, patience and a reality shock for Gadhafi. It is time for the EU to send a clear message that it will not leave its Bulgarian newcomer in the lurch."

The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung shares a similar point of view:

"The six convicted, who came to the oil country as guest workers, are victims of domestic and foreign policy squabbles. At first, Gadhafi needed a culprit to distract from the miserable conditions of his health care system. But now, Gadhafi lives in peace with the West and would probably also like to be rid of the AIDS trial. However, he could not simply give such an order without further ado: The trial would be exposed as a propaganda show and the parents of both the deceased as well as the living infected children would be shocked. What to do, then, so as not to put off the future EU member Bulgaria? The Supreme Court will scrap the death sentences and there will be retrials. The European Union will continue to pay ransom money disguised as development aid, while the will to live of the six on death row becomes weaker and weaker."