Nadja Benaissa, accused of transmitting HIV to her former lover has been found guilty and given a two-year suspended sentence in Germany.

The 28 year old  pop star has been found guilty on one count of causing grievous bodily harm and two of attempted bodily harm.

During the trial the singer had admitted to having unprotected sex with several partners without revealing her HIV status and had told the court she was “sorry from the bottom of my heart”.

Sentencing, Judge Dennis Wacker acknowledged that Benaissa had expressed remorse during the trial, but that the court found that she was guilty of intentionally and recklessly infected one of her former partners with HIV and endangering two others.

Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe (German Aids-awareness group) spokeswoman Marianne Rademacher said in response to the verdict: “If the responsibility for prevention is put entirely upon women and HIV-positive people, we are not recognising the combined responsibility of two people.”

The five-day trial, took place in a youth court in the western town of Darmstad, because Benaissa was 16 when the first offence took place. The court discovered that Benaissa was a troubled teenager who spent her early teens addicted to drugs and often homeless.

At 16 Nadja became pregnant and then discovered she was HIV-positive. Her career took off shortly after when she was catapulted to stardom in the all-girl group ‘No Angels’ after winning Germany’s version of Popstars in 2001.

The trial has received worldwide media attention and has again raised the issue of the criminal HIV transmission. Many HIV activists in the UK have been shocked by the stigmatising language used by people on national media websites in response to features and discussion boards on the issue.

One fan told the BBC’s Tristana Moore who was reporting from the trial, she was disappointed that Nadja Benaissa hadn’t told her former lovers that she was HIV-positive. “But the guys could have also used a condom – it’s not just Nadja’s fault,” she said.

As part of the two-year suspended sentence. Benaissa will also be expected to do 300 hours community service and undergo counselling.

ENDS

Click here to read Edwin J Bernard’s Criminal HIV Transmission blog

GERMAN  pop star Nadja Benaissa went on trial in Darmstadt this week facing charges of grievous bodily harm and attempted bodily harm after she admitted to having unprotected sex with sevaral parners without revealing her HIV status. She told the open court: “I am so sorry.”

Benaissa who shot to fame after winning Germany’s version of Popstars in the all-girl group ‘No Angels’ was dramatically arrested last April in Frankfurt before she was due to perform in a solo concert.

In a statement read out by her lawyer, Benaissa said: “When I was arrested I realised that the way that I had dealt with the illness had been wrong… I made a big mistake.”

“No way did I want my partner to be infected,” she added.

Of the three men involved in the case, one has since tested HIV-positive.

Nadja Benaissa was only 17 years old and pregnant when she was diagnosed in 1999.

Edwin J Bernard, activist and specialist in HIV prosecutions told the BBC’s, Tristana Moore. There have been least 600 prosecutions of HIV-positive people around the world ranging from prosecutions that could not cause any harm suck as spitting, to the more serious charge of murder. But very few cases have been around the intentional transmission of HIV sexually.

“Many experts in the HIV field including UNAIDS and the United Nations have recommended that prosecutions should only occur if it can be proven that there was intention, and that also transmission can be proven with out any reasonable doubt,” said Bernard.

“Prosecutions and laws that criminalise HIV infections may do more harm than good in reducing new HIV infections. Studies in the United States have found that these laws have no impact on HIV transmission. “Bernard told the BBC in the interview from Berlin.

If convicted Benaissa faces a prison sentence ranging from six months to 10 years, she maintains that she did not deliberately infect anyone.

ENDS

Click here to read Edwin J Bernard’s Criminal HIV Transmission blog

©IAS/Steve Forrest/Workers' Photos

Nadja Benaissa, a singer from German girl band ‘No Angels’ has admitted to having unprotected sex with several partners without warning them she was HIV-positive,’ reported the BBC today.

Journalism needs to be matter of fact. I suppose this sentence is fair reporting. It’s the BBC after all.

A video shows Nadja entering the courtroom, a nervous smile, hands clutching the chair as in search of some form of security. It must be crucifying to be judged for such a crime. Almost like being a rapist.

Nadja was diagnosed with HIV in 1999.  She was 17 and pregnant. Now, over ten years later, she has been accused of grievously body harm and attempted grievously body harm. This is because between 2000 and 2004, the years immediately following her diagnosis, she slept with three men, without disclosing she was HIV positive and without using a condom.  One of the men has since become HIV positive.

For those of us who are quick to say: how could she? I would like to ask a few questions: could you imagine finding out you are pregnant, and that you also have HIV, at 17? Can you imagine the fear that you could possibly infect the baby, and the anxiety that the medications you need to take in order to prevent the transmission may harm you and the baby? Can you imagine the fear for your own self of dying a horrible and shameful death? How would you tell your partner, or your ex, or the person you are hoping to have a relationship with? And what could the consequences be?

It is not surprising that many HIV+ women’s networks such as ICW and PozFem UK have actually made recommendations to test women before they get pregnant, and not just use us as easy targets for public health interventions.

Nadja’s case has been given a lot of publicity. She was arrested in the limelight, before a gig in February last year,and spent ten days in prison before being released on remand. She is a pop star, and a black woman whose success has been very much based on her exotic physical appearance and sexual appeal.  The sexist and racist dimension of this story rings alarm bells. Why are we pointing the finger at her, ready to condemn and constrain? What else is at stake? What needs to be controlled?

It is almost impossible to prove scientifically, beyond doubt, that somebody infected somebody else with HIV. But I think that the scientific argument is not the most important in this debate. It is the human argument that is crucial.

It’s a hard task taking a deep look at the complexities of how we relate to each other, especially when sex and emotions are at stake. It is about understanding how deeply HIV related stigma cripples relationships for all of us. How it still affects the ability to disclose and negotiate safe sex for the person who is HIV positive, especially a young woman, or just to bring up the subject, for the untested, or HIV negative partner.

I hope the jury will be able to put themselves in the shoes of a newly diagnosed young woman. Being diagnosed with HIV-positive is a truly terrifying and paralyzing experience. To help them I would like to use the words of Esme, a PozFem member: “The shock was enormous. There were tears. I went terribly quiet and immediately retreated, withdrawing into a world that took me nearly five years to return from. Sometimes I feel as I still exist there. A place that is lonely, shameful, and damaged, where my own body is my enemy and the person I blame is myself’ (Positively Women Magazine 2008).

If Nadja is found guilty of the charges she faces a ten year sentence.

More detailed information on Nadja ‘s case can be found on the excellent blog Criminal HIV Transmission.