of storage, either during the epidemic or currently. Montagnier testified that during his first visit, the health authorities in Libya and the management of the Benghazi hospital showed serious concern over the infection, and that at the time they had no idea of the cause of the epidemic's spread. When questioned by the Bulgarian defense, he affirmed that the infection could have started outside the hospital ward where the Bulgarians were working. The Court ordered a new expert study of the case record. It received the report from the Libyan panel in December. Contrary to the findings of Luc Montagnier and Vittorio Colizzi, this panel concluded that there was no evidence that an in-hospital infection led to the AIDS outbreak at the Benghazi hospital that affected 426 children. The Libyan doctors concluded that the mass infections were more likely due to deliberate actions. Two of the Libyan experts were brought in to testify for the prosecution, Awad Abudjadja of the Libyan national committee on AIDS and Busha Allo, head of the infectious diseases ward of the Al Jamahiriya hospital in Tripoli. They testified that the virus load in the blood of the infected children was too high, an indication that the infection was intentional. Another Libyan virologist Salim Al-Agiri was summoned by the defence. He told the court that the infection at the Benghazi children's hospital was due to lack of prevention and poor control. The prosecutors called for the death penalty based on Nassya Nenova's confession. Nenova admitted in writing to injecting children with contaminated products that she had gotten from the Palestinian Ashraf al-Hadzhudzh. According to the confession she was unaware that they contained HIV, and believed she was testing a new drug. Nenova withdrew her confession before the Libyan People's Court in 2001 and told that court they were extracted under duress. Libyan law disregards confessions extracted with violence. The prosecutors claimed that Kristiana Vulcheva acted as the mastermind. They introduced transcripts of her bank accounts and said she performed money transfers, paying the other defendants. The prosecutors averred that Vulcheva had a luxurious lifestyle and that she speaks Arabic, citing that as a further proof of her guilt. One piece of material evidence which they said called for the death penalty were five containers of plasma protein found to contain four varieties of HIV according to a report by Awad Abudadjadja, a coordinator of the Libyan