Libya continues their bizarre charade, in the case of the foreign medics “convicted” of deliberately infecting Libyan children with AIDS; the good news is that the Gadafi thugs seem to be backing down on the threat to execute the medics, and are now engaged in some face-saving maneuvers: Deal struck in Libya foreign medics case.

TRIPOLI, Libya - A settlement has been reached in the case of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who have been sentenced to death in Libya for infecting 400 children with the AIDS virus, the spokesman for the country’s Gadhafi foundation said Tuesday.

Foundation spokesman Salah Abdessalem did not say how the deal reached with families of the HIV-infected children would affect the case against the six foreign medical workers. The announcement came a day before Libya’s Supreme Court was to rule on an appeal of their sentence, which caused an international outcry and a diplomatic crisis with Bulgaria and the European Union.

“A settlement has been reached by the Gadhafi foundation and the League of the Libyan Children Infected with AIDS,” Abdessalem said, referring to the group representing families of infected children. “This settlement is acceptable to all parties and will end the crisis,” he told The Associated Press. “Details will be announced tomorrow.”

Gadhafi had tried in the past to reach a deal by which Bulgaria would compensate the victims. But the Bulgarian government had rejected the proposal, saying it would imply the nurses’ guilt.

The Gadhafi International Foundation for Charity Associations is headed by Seif al Islam, son of longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. Seif al Islam has become an influential figure in Gadhafi’s regime and an unofficial ambassador-at-large for it. On Monday, a Bulgarian newspaper quoted him as saying the six medics had received unjust verdicts and would not be executed.

“We don’t want to see executions in Libya, of Libyans or Bulgarians,” the newspaper 24 Chassa quoted Seif al Islam as saying. Asked whether he could provide any guarantees that they would not be executed, he said: “I can tell you we will not execute anyone,” according to the newspaper.