The world knows Ashraf al-Hajouj as the Palestinian "doctor” sentenced to death together with five Bulgarian nurses in Libya for allegedly infecting hundreds of children with HIV. The six were sentenced on Dec. 19, at the 13th hearing of the Benghazi court, and the verdict received widespread condemnation from the world.

  The verdict was even more controversial because evidence showed the epidemic was present at the hospital long before the six started working there in 1999. But apparently even scientific evidence discussed at length in leading scientific journal Nature was not enough for the Libyan court. Families of the infected children demanded justice, and the court gave them convenient scapegoats.

  But the family of Ashraf al-Hajouj also demands justice. The Turkish Daily News spoke to the family members of al-Hajouj, who is actually not a doctor but an intern who started working at the hospital just two months before the epidemic broke out.

  The bereaved father, Ahmed Juma al-Hajouj, said the verdicts are the result of a scenario concocted by the Libyan police. “The Libyan government thinks Ashraf would make a good scapegoat as we Palestinians have no state and are powerless,” he said.

  Ashraf's sister, lawyer Darin al-Hajouj, said she prays to Allah every day that the convicted will be freed and is demanding that the European Union pressure the Libyan government.

  The case has devastated the whole family because they have been portrayed by the Libyan media as "killers of innocent children.” As it became impossible for the family to stay in the country, they left Libya and took shelter in the Netherlands.

  Ashraf's cousin, As'ad El-Hajouj, who resides in Gaza, told the TDN that Ashraf had lost an eye and that one of his hands had been paralyzed because of torture he endured while in prison.

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