Nadja Benaissa, a pop star from the biggest selling German girlband to date No Angels has admitted to having unprotected sex with several men despite knowing she was HIV positive and allegedly without warning to the men involved.
After her original arrest in April 2009 the No Angels Band Manager, Khalid Schroeder said that Benaissa's arrest was the result of "a witch-hunt against Nadja! and continued by saying, "She is being prejudged. The investigation is still continuing and there are no hard facts yet. This is unfair. We want her to be released as soon as possible."
AIDS groups criticised the authorities handling of the arrest and warned against a rush to criminalise the transmission of HIV. "Based on the information that we have about the detention of Nadja Benaissa, we think she should be released," said Carolin Vierneisel, a spokeswoman for the AIDS organisation Deutsche AIDS-Hilfe. "When it comes to consensual sex, whether protected or unprotected, we talk about shared responsibility," she said. "The criminalisation of HIV transmission, as shown in this case, doesn't support HIV prevention efforts. On the contrary, it fosters the stigmatisation of HIV positive people."
Benaissa told the court during the opening of her trial yesterday that, “In those days I was careless.I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart," however she denied deliberately infecting anyone.
According to prosecutors, Ms Benaissa knew she was HIV-positive as early as 1999.
In a statement, read to the court by her lawyer she said:
"I'd been told the likelihood of infecting someone or that I would develop the illness [Aids] was more or less zero. For that reason, I kept the news even from my close group of friends [as] I didn't want my daughter to be stigmatised. I told the band members because I trusted them but I never made it public because I feared that it would mean the end of the band."
Benaissa faces a charge of grievous bodily harm for allegedly infecting one man. She has also been charged with attempted bodily harm for allegedly having sex with two other men who were not infected.
If convicted, Ms Benaissa faces a prison sentence ranging from six months to 10 years. The verdict is due on the 26th August.
Photo of Nadja Benaissa via the No Angels official website.