In a highly unusual and controversial case which made national and international headlines last week, Dutch authorities have arrested four men suspected of deliberately infecting gay men with HIV.
Victims have alleged that they were drugged at the sex parties organised by the men and injected with HIV-contaminated blood taken from the organisers.
Three of the four HIV-positive men in the northern Dutch city of Groningen, where the alleged crimes took place, have been charged with rape and "premeditated severe assault." The men could face a maximum penalty of 16 years in prison.
Prosecution spokesman Paul Heidanus said that the men would not be charged with attempted murder "because of a Supreme Court ruling that found AIDS should no longer be seen as an inevitably fatal disease, but rather a chronic illness."
Two of the men - a couple aged 48 and 33 - have admitted that they arranged dates with gay men through Internet chat rooms. At the parties, they secretly spiked the drinks of the victims with GHB, commonly known as the "date rape drug," sometimes in combination with ecstasy.
"The motive to do this was the 'kick,' and the feeling that unsafe sex is 'pure,'" a police chief said at a news conference.
The fourth suspect, who is not suspected of involvement in the rapes, would face drugs charges for allegedly selling "a considerable amount of drugs," including Ecstasy and GHB, an intoxicant that is sometimes known as a "date rape" drug, police said in a statement.
"The victims said they had had been made helpless or unconscious and then abused," a police statement said. "They had... involuntary and unsafe sex with one or more of the suspects."
Expressing shock and disgust, Henk Krol, the editor of a homosexual magazine titled Gaykrant, said: "These people were drugged, it's therefore rape, pure and simple. It's shameful, disgusting and terrifying. Those who did this are crazy."
"That homos organise orgies is nothing new, but this is something else. This is unimaginable," said Frank van Dalen, the president of a gay rights group called COC, was quoted as saying.
A judge on May 16 ordered the suspects be held for 90 days as the investigation is still ongoing. Police said they did not rule out further arrests, and urged other victims to come forward or to contact a help line to receive HIV testing.
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Reader's Comments
The drug and sex culture is known. It may be reckless and morally questioned, but so is everyone dying of old age or by accidents. But that does not mean anyone can put a gun to your head and pull the trigger!
It is truly sad that there are vengeful vicious people out there who do harm to others. It is not necessarily a gay thing. Just becos they were caught does not mean the st8 population is not hurting the masses too.
Evil is a human condition. Just too bad it has to happen and the gay lifestyle be made the scapepsyche for it.
AND NOW there is such a disturbing news regarding such parties. I hope pppls around our region is not as crazy as those in Holland.
My advise is to go back to the old fashion way of one to one :) hehe Yes I know it is more time consuming and need couragement to always search for guys...hehe..well, better to be safe than sorry ...right?
Oh, please do not forget about the other sex diseases out there....Nasty.
Hope the vicitms will stand strong and may the rest of the world give them utmost support.....
those guys are sick!!!!!!
they deserve death rows!!!all of them!!!!!
Sure, these despicable cretaures should be punished severely, but Europe thinks death penalty is barbaric.
A more appropriate sentence would be between 60 years imprisonment to lifetime imprisonment!
However, why would the victims consent to orgy and search for such problems as they is a possibility of forseeable certainty that such risks would take place? Orgy is so far proven to be non-beneficial to individuals and they don't even know these strangers whom they're medling with! Shame on them.
Moreover, we do not have any death penalty in Western Europe. The death penalty is against the UN Charta of Human Rights, and those countries that still have the death penalty in their legal codes, should be punished and forced to get rid of the death penalty.
Another thing: Let's face it, just have a look at some gay places in Amsterdam or elsewhere in other countries, not just in Western Europe but throughout the world: having unsafe sex is very common, most people give a damn about wearing a condom, and all the "Wear a condom" campaigns have failed. Why? Because people got annoyed by them, and bored. Aids is not a lethal disease any more but a chronic one. There is no cure and living with HIV/Aids will change one's life, for sure. But you won't necessarily die from HIV/Aids any more.
A psychologist should have a look at this case in Groningen: Those guys who did infect others were seropositive themselves. Psychologically speaking, I think they hate gay guys who made them positive and so, they want to destroy other gay guys' lives. This is not an excuse for what they did but maybe an explanation that helps to understand their actions.
the men all should be sentenced to at least life imprisonment.
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