“He did not inform about the infection because he was afraid of losing him.” Clarify the verdict in the criminal case of HIV infection

The Riga city court found the defendant guilty and sentenced him to 90 hours of community service, as well as 50,000 euros in compensation for moral damage to the victim.

Riga City Court judge Gunta Sokolova explains the sentence: “The accused knew that he was infected with HIV. In the medical institution, he signed a statement that he was introduced to the rights and obligations of an HIV-infected person, understood them and undertook to comply.

He also signed for the fulfillment of his obligations – to ensure that the disease does not spread further, to observe the principle of “safe sex”, to reduce the risks of blood and vertical transmission, to inform other medical personnel about his HIV status and to encourage contacts (sexual partners, drug users) to take an HIV test.

However, the accused engaged in sexual intercourse and did not inform his partner that he was infected with HIV. During their cohabitation, the accused’s girlfriend happened to see a document stating that the accused was infected. The woman was also diagnosed with HIV. The accused admitted to his partner that he did not inform about the infection because he was afraid of losing her.

From the subjective side, the criminal offense provided for in Article 133 of the Criminal Law is an intentional crime characterized by both direct and indirect intent. Indirect intention will be in cases where a person knows about his illness and foresees that as a result of his actions he can infect another person, and deliberately allows such consequences to occur.

Since the accused knew about the infection and that he could infect another person when having sex, he deliberately allowed his partner to become infected. Thus, the court recognized that the guilt of the accused has been proven.

The court sentenced him to community service, taking into account that the sanction of the article provides for alternative forms of punishment. The accused has not been punished before, he is working, so the court did not impose the harshest sentence. On the other hand, the defendant was ordered to pay the victim 50,000 euros in compensation for moral damage. On the other hand, the victim, according to the circumstances of the case and the consequences of the criminal offense, is required to monitor her health throughout her life and take care not to infect other people.”