Sughd chief prosecutor Habibullo Vohidov is seriously concerned over increase in the number of cases of intentional infection of people with HIV in the province.
In a statement released at a meeting of the Coordination Council for the Law Enforcement Agencies of Sughd Province in Khujand, Vohidov revealed on May 2 that 138 cases of intentional infection of people with HIV were reported in northern Tajikistan last year and over the first four months of this year.
“In 2018, 48 cases of the intentional infection of people with HIV were reported in the province, while over the first four months this year alone, 92 cases of criminal transmission of HIV have been reported in the area,” Sughd chief prosecutor noted.
According to him, 33 criminal proceedings were instituted against 26 persons living with HIV in the province last year under the provisions of Article 125 of the country’s Penal Code – intentional infection of a person with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).
Over the first four months of this year, the number of such criminal proceedings has reportedly risen to 39. Those 39 criminal proceedings have been instituted against 32 persons living with HIV.
Criminal transmission of HIV is the intentional or reckless infection of a person with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). This is often conflated, in laws and in discussion, with criminal exposure to HIV, which does not require the transmission of the virus and often, as in the cases of spitting and biting, does not include a realistic means of transmission. Some countries or jurisdictions, including some areas of the U.S., have enacted laws expressly to criminalize HIV transmission or exposure, charging those accused with criminal transmission of HIV. Others, including the United Kingdom, charge the accused under existing laws with such crimes as murder, fraud (Canada), manslaughter, attempted murder, or assault.
