Trial over HIV-tainted blood opens in Iran
TEHRAN, June 9 (AFP) - Three former directors of Iran's state-run blood
transfusion body went on trial Wednesday over complaints involving thousands
of people infected with diseases including AIDS through contaminated blood.
Former head of the Iranian Organization for Blood Transfusion Mohammad
Farhadi and two associates are accused by several dozen families whose
children, mostly hemophiliacs, died after transfusions of blood contaminated
with the Human Immune-deficiency Virus (HIV).
The Iranian Hemophiliac Association has filed complaints on behalf
of the victims against the three officials as well as French pharmaceutical
firm Merieux.
The group's secretary general Ahmad Ghavidel told the court that the
accused had imported contaminated blood and blood products from France.
"It is a professional failure resulting in the death and sickness
of all those in need of blood transfusions," Ghavidel said.
Sohrab Sameni, the victims' lawyer, said about 6,500 people were affected.
But Farhadi rejected the accusations, claiming that the HIV-infected
victims had contracted the virus through other means.
"Neither the blood transfusion body, nor the the French Merieux
firm are implicated," he told the court.
The victims' families accuse Farhadi and his associates of authorizing
donations without ensuring that the necessary disinfectant procedures were
carried out on the blood.
The judge adjourned the hearing until June 29 due to the "indisciplined"
behaviour of the victims' families.
After the hearing, angry mothers whose children have contracted AIDS
or died from the disease, threatened to take their complaints to Iran's
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The current head of the blood transfusion body on Monday played down
the trial, saying the charges were simply allegations that remained to
be proved.
"The charges do not concern blood, rather blood products which
may have been contaminated through poor disinfectant methods," he
said.
The first case of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in Iran
was registered in 1985 after a one-year-old infant was infected through
a blood transfusion.
According to official figures, some 1,500 people, mostly drug-addicts,
are registered as HIV-positive and of them 200 have contracted AIDS. A
total of 160 people have died of the disease.
The AIDS virus is for the most part transmitted in Iran through sexual
contact and the use of contaminated needles by drug addicts, particularly
prisoners. The Islamic republic launched an AIDS prevention campaign in
the early 1990s.
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