HIV-infected man gets 7-year in prison for suicide attempt
sharjah — Coaxed by his friends, a 27-year-old Arab man got hooked to drugs. When he discovered he had been infected with HIV as a result of injecting the drugs, he went into a state of depression, locked himself in his room, broke the furniture and set fire to the curtains.
On Monday, a Sharjah court sentenced the youth to seven years in jail after finding him guilty of attempted suicide.
Acting on a call received at the operations room, the Sharjah Police and Civil Defence teams rushed to the site and found that the youth was sitting at a corner even as the fire was raging. The police broke open the door and rescued him.
The man’s father and the defence lawyer said that the young man was in a state of shock and depression after discovering his illness. Since HIV is a taboo, he felt devastated and decided to take his own life, they said.
The convict’s father blamed his son’s “bad company” for his health condition and requested
He was brilliant and dreamt of becoming an engineer, but he digressed from his goal. We were surprised to see him isolating himself, and turn hostile towards us without any reason. All his six siblings feel sad for what has happened.” Father of the accused
the court to dismiss the case. He submitted a report, which said his son was admitted at Al Qasimi Hospital as he unable to move due to epilepsy.
During a previous hearing, the father had said that he called the police when he saw the fire. However, at the time, he said he was not aware that his son had been diagnosed with HIV and he was mentally upset.
The visibly shaken father told Khaleej Times that his son was one of the best students when he was in high school, but he fell into bad company “who forced him into drugs”. He started staying out for long periods of time and travelled to undisclosed places, the father said.
“He was brilliant and dreamt of becoming an engineer, but he digressed from his goal. We were surprised to see him isolating himself, and turn hostile towards us without any reason. All his six siblings feel sad for what has happened to their brother,” the father said.
He said that his son started staying aloof with his family when he joined university. He was brilliant and dreamt of becoming an engineer, but he digressed from his goal, the man added. “We were surprised to see him isolating himself, and turn hostile towards us without any reason. All his six siblings feel sad for what has happened to their brother.”
He said earlier when he had reported about the fire to the police, he didn’t know that his son was HIV-infected. Since he was angry with his child, he didn’t even visit him in the prison as he wanted him to learn from his mistakes. But later when he went there, he was shocked to learn about his son’s disease. He saw his son being taken to the hospital as he had an epilepsy attack.
The father said his son’s health is deteriorating fast. “I have informed the judiciary about his poor health condition and requested them to drop the case against him.” The medical report showed that the young man infected with HIV as he injected drugs.