Ex-Officials to Be Tried in French AIDS Scandal
The French National Assembly decided Saturday to try an ex-prime minister and two former high-level officials in an AIDS scandal, reversing a decision that let the three off the hook and sparked outrage.
The vacillation by the Socialist-dominated assembly further tarnished the governing party’s image ahead of March legislative elections it is already expected to lose to the conservatives.
The ex-prime minister, Laurent Fabius, has demanded he stand trial so he can clear his name. The scandal erupted when the state-run transfusion center provided hemophiliacs with blood known to be tainted with the AIDS virus and contaminated 1,200 people in 1985. More than 300 have died.
Fabius, head of the Socialist party, and other top officials say they did not know the blood products were deadly before they were distributed.
The assembly voted, 518 to 1, with six abstentions, to charge Fabius, former Social Affairs Minister Georgina Dufoix and ex-Deputy Health Minister Edmond Herve with failing to assist a person in danger. The maximum sentence is five years in prison.
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