Libyan police officers are suspected of torturing Bulgarian nurses charged with infecting Libyan children with virus that causes AIDS

Bulgaria has launched a judicial inquiry into the actions of 11 Libyan police officers suspected of torturing Bulgarian nurses charged with infecting Libyan children with the virus that causes AIDS.

Prosecutors in Sofia told reporters Wednesday that there is enough evidence to begin an investigation. They say the officers would be tried in absentia.

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A Libyan court in December sentenced five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor to death on charges of deliberately infecting more than 400 children in a hospital in Benghazi with the HIV virus.

The court in Tripoli based its decision on confessions from some of the nurses who said authorities obtained their admissions by using torture.

The nurses have already spent eight years in a Libyan prison.

The nurses have lodged a civil suit against at least nine officers charging them with use of torture. A Libyan court in Tripoli acquitted the officers in 2005.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.