Usti nad Labem, North Bohemia, Jan 25 (CTK) – A court ordered yesterday that a Czech man suspected of knowingly spreading HIV be taken into custody, otherwise he might escape and continue his criminal activity, state attorney Vladimir Jan has told CTK.
The suspect, Zdenek Pfeifer, 49, hid in Thailand for months before being extradited to the Czech Republic on Tuesday.
He has been charged with eight crimes, the most serious of which is a severe harming of other people’s health and the spreading of a contagious disease, Jan said.
Pfeifer faces up to 12 years in prison, if convicted, he added.
Pfeifer was arrested on the Phuket island, Thailand, based on an international arrest warrant last week.
He allegedly stayed on Phuket on the basis of a tourist visa that expired in 2015.
Pfeifer is suspected of having spread HIV knowingly. The police have found at least three men with whom he had sex and who, too, are HIV-positive. The youngest of them was aged 13 at the time.
Pfeifer learnt he was HIV positive in September 2013 but he did not tell his sexual partners about it, the police say.
They found out that he had sex with at least 23 men all over the Czech Republic.
More than 1000 witnesses have been questioned. Many of them contacted the police after a media call.
The police are convinced that the number of victims was much higher.
rtj/dr/kva
