Six innocent medical professionals are being held, and expect execution, in Libya. Their crime? “Conspiring with the US and Israel” to infect more than 400 children with HIV.

Of course there’s no evidence. The whole thing is a sham. Independent investigation has determined the reason for the infection was the general poor hygiene of Libyan hospitals combined with untrained staff (not the six who’ve been incarcerated.) But rather than admit institutional shortcomings, the Libyan authorities prefer to blame some poorly defined international conspiracy and execute six innocent scapegoats.

This is simply unacceptable in the modern world. There is no way the international community should be sitting by while this travesty of “justice” is carried out (and I can’t help feeling that if they were British or American, it wouldn’t be, but who cares about five Bulgarians and a Palestinian?.) But the world has largely forgotten these six people, and it’s fallen to (mainly science) bloggers to try to get the message out. Spread the word.