A Men sentenced for 7 years for Premeditated HIV Transmission in the UK

Antonio Reyes-Minana, a 25-year-old man, was sentenced for 7 years for premeditated HIV transmission in the UK. He had known about his HIV positive status, but this fact didn’t stop him from unprotected sex with two men. Names of his partners couldn’t be disclosed for legal reasons, but they were not informed about the HIV-positive status of Reyes. Later his partners got positive results after being tested for HIV. The Crown Prosecution Service treated actions of Reyes as “grievous bodily harm”.

The cases of HIV criminalization, unfortunately, happen quite often. In the year 2014, in Germany, the female-sex worker was jailed for unprotected sex and transmission of HIV to many of her clients. In the USA a human could face up to 30 years of prison for premeditated HIV transmission, and in Russia up to 3 years.

However, HIV activists in many countries oppose jailing for HIV. Specialists found the criminalization of HIV positive people discriminating, being the special topic of the law is humiliating and handles only for stigma, but not for the epidemic stopped.