15 years of imprisonment were required by the general counsel against the man accused of knowingly transmitting HIV to several women. The verdict is expected at the end of the afternoon.
The trial of Christophe Morat opened Tuesday before the Assize Court of Bouches-du-Rhône. This 40-year-old, HIV-positive, is accused of knowingly infecting one of his partners with HIV, and of endangering five others. He had already been sentenced in 2005 to six years in prison for similar facts, and therefore risks a thirty-year sentence this time for recidivism. But this Thursday, the prosecution delivered its indictment.
Fifteen years required
A minimum sentence of fifteen years in prison has been requested today against the 40-year-old man. “He persisted in not wanting to protect himself, the premeditation is characterized”, told Agence France Presse (AFP) the general counsel Martine Assonion, who called for a sentence to match “the heavy past of a seducer without limit to achieve his ends. “
The latter had in fact also been indicted in 2012 for “voluntary administration of harmful substances resulting in permanent disability, with premeditation and legal recurrence”, in this case the virus responsible for AIDS transmitted to his companion Maryse without the having informed that he was a carrier of the AIDS virus.
A human bomb
The Advocate General highlighted the “total drug deficiency” of the accused during the material period, which “turned him into a human bomb.” “
“He voluntarily put himself on the sidelines. He has been lying and manipulating the whole time. What counts is his personal interest, it is to have a certain enjoyment in everyday life “, underlined Martine Assonion who spoke of a” utilitarian use of women “on the part of the accused. . The verdict is expected this Thursday at the end of the afternoon.
Double responsibility
In the meantime, associations fighting and preventing AIDS have always warned that repressive management of the transmission of the epidemic could have serious consequences. The National AIDS Council indeed insists on the idea of double responsibility. Thus, he recalls that “if a person living with HIV has the responsibility not to transmit the virus, the uncontaminated person has the responsibility, on the occasion of a new relationship, to protect themselves from HIV and other infections. sexually transmitted. Consequently, this responsibility cannot be unilateral ”.
The associations also argue that penalizing the transmission of HIV can worsen the marginalization of HIV-positive people, and create a climate of generalized suspicion that would encourage people not to be tested, because ignorance of HIV status would make it possible to avoid criminal prosecution. . They also seek to combat the stigma, which makes some patients prefer to hide their condition from their partners, for fear of their reaction.
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