BEIJING, June 16 (UPI) -- A court in central China handed down a landmark jail sentence Wednesday to a man who used his HIV-positive condition to commit robbery and theft.
It is the first time China's judicial system has publicly dealt with a criminal carrying the HIV virus, the precursor to AIDS.
Xinhua, China's main government-run news agency, said Liu Ding received an 11 year prison term and was fined 10,000 yuan ($1,200) by a court in Wuhan, Hubei province, for threatening to infect his crime victims with the virus.
Liu committed robberies and stole property to feed his heroin addiction. He contracted HIV in 1999 from needle sharing.
Liu had been arrested several times by local law enforcement, only to be released because of police officers' fears of contracting the disease, as well as lack of specialized detention facilities for people in his condition.
Since October 2003 Liu has been held at a prison 40 km (25 miles) outside Wuhan. Authorities are considering turning the prison into a center for detainees suffering with infectious diseases.
