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Thursday, October 31, 2002 - Web posted at 10:35:49 GMT Soldier back in court on AIDS attempted murder charge WERNER MENGESTHE first case in which someone has been criminally charged for allegedly transmitting the AIDS virus has returned to court, more than three years after it was withdrawn because of conflicting evidence. |
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The man at the centre of the case, a 36-year-old Namibia Defence Force member, yesterday repeated a statement to The Namibian that he made after charges against him were withdrawn in the High Court on May 11 1999. He maintains that he remains healthy, that he has been tested to be HIV negative, and that he is being wrongly accused. In the High Court he and a nurse who was employed at the Katutura Hospital had faced charges of rape and attempted murder, based on allegations that he transmitted the AIDS virus to his former girlfriend after presenting her with an HIV test report that showed he had tested negative for the virus, while he allegedly knew that he had in fact tested HIV positive. It was alleged that the nurse colluded with the soldier to enter a wrong test result on the document he showed to his girlfriend to persuade her to have unprotected sex with him between November 1996 and March 1997. The charges were laid after she discovered later that she had contracted HIV. They were withdrawn when the soldier's defence lawyer presented the prosecution with an HIV test result, taken only a month before the May 1999 High Court appearance, which showed that the man had tested HIV negative. The first, allegedly positive result, was obtained in November 1996. The case came back to life in June this year, though, when the soldier was arrested on a warrant stating that he was wanted on a charge of having defeated or obstructed the course of justice on May 11 1999 - the date of the withdrawal of charges in the High Court. The case against the nurse has not been re-opened. Public Prosecutor Brownwell Uirab asked the Magistrate to have the case postponed to March 11 next year, for further investigations. This is after the Prosecutor General instructed that a new blood sample should be obtained from the accused, and that it should be tested and compared with the sample from which the HIV-negative test result was obtained three and a half years ago. The suspect is free on bail of N$1 000. |
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