BENGHAZI, Libya, 16 April 2004 — A Libyan court postponed a verdict yesterday on six Bulgarian medics and a Palestinian doctor charged with infecting hundreds of Libyan children with the deadly HIV virus, court officials said. A prosecutor is seeking the death penalty for the five women and two men, who were detained in Tripoli in 1999 and accused of infecting 426 children at a Benghazi hospital with blood products contaminated with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

A court official told reporters one of the judges hearing the case had fallen ill with gastric flu. The verdict in the five-year-old trial will now be delivered on May 6. More than 40 of the children have died since 1999, adding to already heated emotions in both countries over the case.

The issue has also gained greater attention as Libya tries to emerge from international isolation after abandoning its nuclear arms program in December and its push this year for a thaw in ties with the United States and Britain. Relatives of the children have asked for harsh sentences, but the medics insist they are not to blame for the epidemic.

They have pleaded innocent, as have nine Libyans who faced similar charges.