Waiter convicted on Aids charge

By Charlie Charalambous

WAITER Andreas Michael was yesterday found guilty by Larnaca district court of exposing two Cypriot women to the deadly Aids virus.

The hearing was again held behind closed doors, and the judge’s decision was relayed by the court clerk.

Judge Tefkros Economou will sentence Michael, 28, on Tuesday.

Michael has been found guilty of negligently transmitting the virus, in the full knowledge of how it could be contracted, by having unprotected sex and not informing his partners of his condition.

He faces a maximum two-year prison sentence or a £1,500 fine or both. He was charged under a 50-year-old law that aims to prevent the spread of contagious diseases.

He is the third HIV-positive Cypriot to be convicted of spreading the disease in less than a year.

The previous two, fisherman Pavlos Georgiou, 40, and British-born Cypriot Chrysavgi Zarzour, 27, were both jailed.

Georgiou was sentenced to 15 months in July 1997 and released after a Presidential pardon on New Year’s Eve; Zarzour was sentenced to seven months in April.

Legal sources believe it unlikely Michael will walk free on Tuesday, given the precedents.

He was remanded in custody until sentencing.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.