A Finnish court has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison for infecting five women with the AIDS virus and having unprotected sex with 14 others although he knew he was infected.
When the young Finn Aki Hakkarainen got infected with the AIDS virus during a visit to Thailand in 1999, he decided not to tell his sexual partners about his disease. The crimes he has now been convicted for began soon after his return from Thailand.
The court says it found Aki Hakkarainen guilty of five counts of aggravated assault and 14 counts of attempted aggravated assault because he did not inform his sexual partners about his condition.
The Rovaniemi District Court says the 25-year-old Hakkarainen must pay €300,000 (15 million Bath) to the five victims who contracted the virus.
The sentence was the maximum allowed for aggravated assault.
