The legal proceedings against a 25-year-old man suspected of having intentionally spread HIV through unprotected sex with several women continued today in the city of Rovaniemi in Northern Finland.
The District Court examined the results of the psychiatric examination that was ordered for the suspect and completed last month, and deemed that the defendant was in a fit mental state to be sentenced for the offences.
In its interim ruling the court had stated previously that the man was found guilty of transmitting HIV intentionally to at least five women. In addition, he had had unprotected sex with another 16 women, exposing them to possible infection.
The prosecutor has called for a minimum sentence of 12 years' imprisonment. The maximum permissible sentence under the law would be 13 years.
A judgement will be handed down on August 25th.
The man engaged in unprotected sex with numerous women between the years of 1999 and 2004, in spite of the fact that he knew he had contracted HIV at the age of sixteen.
The unprotected intercourse took place in Rovaniemi, Jyväskylä, and Äänekoski.
The case attracted some attention late last year, when police published a photograph of the man and disclosed his name - something seldom done before trial - in order that other sexual partners who might have been infected could be reached.
