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Trial of Kazakh HIV medics ends Kazakh HIV medics found guilty
(about 4 hours later)
In Kazakhstan, a judge has begun reading the verdict in the trial of 21 medical workers accused of causing an HIV outbreak among children. A court in the Central Asian state of Kazakhstan has found 21 medical workers guilty of causing an HIV outbreak which has so far killed 10 children.
The prosecution says their malpractice led to the deaths of nine babies and the infection of 119 other children. At least 119 children and babies contracted the virus after receiving treatment in hospitals in Shymkent.
The virus was found in hospitals in the south of the country last year. The judge said that the accused had acted recklessly, and that corruption and malpractice led to the outbreak.
For eight hours on Tuesday the judge read through the verdict, yet even by the end of the day he was only halfway through his pile of legal paperwork. The HIV outbreak was first discovered last year, but the number of cases is still rising.
Most of the 119 children infected with the virus after receiving treatment in local hospitals were babies. The night before the verdict, another child died. He was two years old.
Dysfunctional system This trial is over but the Shymkent HIV problem is not, says the BBC's Natalia Antelava in the town.
As the judge leafed through hundreds of pages of verdict papers, the doctors, their heads lowered, listened in the centre of the crowded and stuffy courtroom. Unnecessary transfusions
They have denied charges against them including corruption, malpractice and illegal sale of donor blood. The judge announced that all 21 medical workers on trial were guilty. But for each defendant he announced a different punishment.
Across from the defendants, some of the parents of the victims stood crowded into a corner. Medical workers accused of trading illegal blood were sentenced to eight years in prison.
"Death doctors," one mother whispered during the proceedings. Several doctors were sentenced from three to five years.
Like most parents, she comes from an impoverished village outside Shymkent and she told me she does not know where she will get the money to raise her HIV-positive son. But the former head of the regional health department and four of her deputies had their sentences suspended.
The boy, who is now aged two, contracted the virus after receiving a blood transfusion prescribed to treat pneumonia. Mothers of the victims wailed and shouted as they heard that one woman, who many local people hold responsible for the outbreak, would not be jailed.
The investigation later showed he did not need the procedure. Many said that this was not the kind of justice they were hoping for, and added that they would appeal.
Other parents tell a similar story. An investigation into the outbreak found that many children had unnecessary and often multiple blood transfusions.
Because so many children had unnecessary and often multiple blood transfusions, the prosecutors alleged that the doctors were selling blood to make money. Medical equipment was often not sterilised properly.
As Shymkent awaits the verdict, new cases continue to emerge in an outbreak that has not only ruined lives but also revealed a healthcare system that is dysfunctional and corrupt. One boy, who is now aged two, contracted the virus after receiving a blood transfusion prescribed to treat pneumonia.
The prosecutors alleged that the doctors were selling blood to make money.
It is unclear why the suspected infected transfusions affected only children.