HIV/AIDS Bill provides for heavy fines and jail

PEOPLE living with HIVAIDS who have sex with persons without disclosing that they are HIV-positive can now be jailed for seven to ten years or (if the victim dies of an AIDS-related illness) would be charged with manslaughter. And this applies even if a suspect used a condom. Also facing punishment would be health institutions and health care professionals who  give blood, tissue or body fluids through intravenous or intermuscular drugs to a patient who becomes infected. They will pay a  $500,000 fine and have their licence revoked. The bill will also  punish drug users who share needles.

These are some of the main features of the Offences against the Persons (HIV) Amendment Bill which was piloted by the Minister in the Ministry of National Security, Fitzgerald Hinds, in the House of Representatives yesterday. Hinds explained that the bill would criminalise the “reckless and irresponsible behaviour” that leads to many cases of HIV infections. Under the Bill, a person who knows or ought to know that he/she has HIV must disclose his/her positive status to anyone with whom he/she is intimate. Hinds stressed that the offence  created in the Bill was not transmission of the disease, but “exposure to the risk of transmission” (to the disease).

This means that the offence is committed whether or not the person becomes infected, and even if condoms are used. Hinds said conviction for “intentional exposure would carry a penalty of ten years imprisonment while conviction for “reckless exposure” would result in  a seven year jail term. If the victim dies, the suspect can face a 15 - 20 year sentence for manslaughter. Hinds said the onus was on the accused person to prove that he/she informed the victim, and that the victim consented to have sex under these conditions. Hinds said health care professionals had been reporting that in numerous cases persons became infected from partners, who knew that they (the partners) had the virus, but who failed to reveal this information. 

Hinds noted that babies were born with the disease. He said Government believed that in line with its  social and public health initiatives, the criminal law also had a role to play in stemming the Aids epidemic. He said Government had singled out AIDS as the only communicable disease for this type of treatment because it was “almost always fatal” and because it had reached pandemic proportions in Trinidad and Tobago. Hinds stressed that the bill was not aimed at discriminating or punishing those who were afflicted with Aids, but targetted only the “intentional, purposive and clearly negligent” conduct which could lead to the spread of the disease.