Nadja Benaissa, a singer in a girl band along the lines of the Spice Girls, tested positive for HIV ten years ago during a pregnancy test, and since that time has continued to sleep around with various men. One of them has since tested positive for HIV, and another turned her in to the police, who arrested her in Frankfurt in 2009.
Benaissa is in court on charges of attempted aggravated assault, for which the maximum penalty is ten years.
The infected man has told the court that his life has fallen apart since the diagnosis, and he is constantly sick because of the antiviral drugs. Psychologically, he is devastated, as he knows he can develop full-blown AIDS at any time.
Although it is not as easy for a man to contract AIDS from a woman as the other way around, it certainly can happen, and given the number of men contemporary Western women sleep with, one woman with an STD can be responsible for infecting multiple people. It is encouraging to see that the woman is being prosecuted, although I don’t see why the charge is simply “attempted” aggravated assault rather than a standard aggravated assault charge; a man was infected after all.
