October 19, 2006: You may have been following the sad case of the five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor who are wrongly accused of deliberately spreading AIDS in Libya. Some relevant links to articles about this are below. A Medical-Legal Travesty in Libya, New York Times, 14 Oct 2006. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/14/opinion/14sat2.html Nature coverage of affair http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/aidsmedicslibya/index.html The situation is now becoming desperate for them. Time is short. The next and last session of the trial is 31 October, and the verdict will come in the days/weeks to follow. If the court again convicts them and supports the death penalty that will reduce considerably the room for maneuver of any subsequent diplomatic solution, as it will lower the negotiating position of the health workers, and make a complete acquittal almost impossible to accomplish. It is critical that international pressure for a fair trial, and for the court to hear scientific evidence from international experts, is brought to bear over the next two weeks, to avoid this outcome. I am hoping to enlist the help of as many Nobel Laureates as possible to sign on to the attached letter, which is slightly modified from one prepared by Declan Butler from Nature, who is covering this case. If I can attract enough support then I plan on delivering it to the head of the Libyan Mission to the UN in the hopes it will get to Colonel Gaddafi. I am also hoping that it can be delivered to various Libyan Embassies in the UK and elsewhere (there is no Embassy in the US). Finally, I will use it to approach the State Department in the hope they can move on the diplomatic front. Various appeals have been made previously by prestigious scientific societies such as the Royal Society and the US National Academies of Sciences, but so far to no avail. I don't know if we can be successful, but I feel we must try. If you will join me in signing this letter please let me know as soon as possible as time is of the essence here. Rich Richard J. Roberts New England Biolabs 240 County Road Ipswich, MA 01938-2723 USA Tel: (978) 380-7405 Fax: (978) 380-7406 email: roberts@neb.com