THAILAND: GERMAN HANS-OTTO SCHIEMANN ACCUSED OF INFECTING OVER ONE HUNDRED WOMEN WITH HIV GOES ON TRIAL

Record ID: 648884

  • Title: THAILAND: GERMAN HANS-OTTO SCHIEMANN ACCUSED OF INFECTING OVER ONE HUNDRED WOMEN WITH HIV GOES ON TRIAL
  • Date: 20th November 2004
  • Summary: (U2) CHAIYAPHUM, THAILAND (NOVEMBER 19, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. SLV POLICE TRUCK ARRIVING; SLV ACCUSED, HANS-OTTO SCHIEMANN GETTING OUT OF TRUCK 0.16 2. SCU SCHIEMANN TURNING TO CAMERA SAYING "I don't like." 0.28 4. SCU REPORTERS TALKING TO SCHIEMANN IN PRISON CELL; MV SCHIEMANN WALKING OUT OF CELL; MV SCHIEMANN WALKING TO COURTROOM; SCHIEMANN SEATED IN COURTROOM 1.42 5. (SOUNDBITE) (German) HANS-OTTO SCHIEMANN, SAYING: "There is no law that says I've broken the law but I'm in the slammer (jail)." 1.54 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 5th December 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: CHAIYAPHUM, THAILAND
  • Country: Thailand
  • Reuters ID: LVA20W3VGMV3TXV7P9QCRLNA67LP
  • Story Text: German accused of infecting over 100 women with HIV
    goes on trial.

    A German man accused of trying to infect nearly 100
    teenage girls with HIV through unprotected sex, went on
    trial on Friday (November 19).

    Hans-Otto Schiemann, a 56-year-old former sailor from
    Schweinfurt in Bavaria, has become a figure of hate in
    northeastern Thailand, with posters plastered across the
    town of Chaiyaphum warning young women not to have sex with
    him.

    However, since Thailand has no laws dealing with people
    who deliberately infect others with the AIDS virus,
    prosecutors have only charged him only with immigration
    offences.

    Residents say Schiemann, who has been in Thailand for
    much of the last decade, offered students aged from 15 to
    17 around 4,000 baht ($100) for sex as part of a campaign
    of vengeance against Thai women, who he blames for his own
    HIV infection.

    Sura Wisedsak of the provincial health office said that
    according to Schiemann's wife, as many as 90 women had been
    deliberately exposed to HIV.

    If their other sexual partners were taken into account,
    the number of victims could be as high as 500, Sura said.

    Schiemann, who refused a prison blood test to confirm
    his HIV status, admitted he had HIV but said he had done
    nothing wrong, and had merely been an attractive figure in
    the relatively impoverished region because of his wealth.

    He also accused his 30-year-old Thai wife, Jiraporn
    Paktaku, who has full-blown AIDS, of being part of a
    campaign to get him kicked out of the country.

    "There is no law that says I've broken the law but I'm
    in the slammer (jail)," he said.

    Schiemann is charged with overstaying a month-long
    tourist visa by three years and faces deportation or two
    years in jail if found guilty.

    Deliberate transmission of the AIDS virus is a crime in
    many countries and the majority of U.S. states. A Texan man
    was sentenced to life in prison in 2003 for sexually
    assaulting an 11-year-old boy when he knew he was
    HIV-positive.

    However, in many developing countries, including those
    in southeast Asia where AIDS and commercial sex are rife,
    effective legislation to address the problem has not been
    passed.


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