CHAIYAPHUM, Thailand, Oct 18 (AFP) - A German at the centre of an HIV scare involving potentially hundreds of Thai women and girls was detained by a court Monday for overstaying his visa.
Hans-Otto Schiemann, 54, who claims to be infected with HIV and that he had unprotected sex with hundreds of Thais, was remanded in custody for a month after denying the offence.
Health officials, police and prosecutors say they are powerless to charge him over his sexual activities.
Schiemann, who was not legally represented at the court in Chaiyaphum, was remanded after a 30-minute hearing and is due before a judge again on November 15. In court the German appeared disoriented.
As he was led away, Schiemann told reporters: "It's unfair to put me back in jail. I haven't committed any crime.
"I have the right to stay here in Thailand but now I have to stay in jail another month. This is a complete scandal, there is no justice in Thailand."
Schiemann, whose common-law Thai wife of five years has AIDS, has refused to take a blood test since being picked up by the authorities five days ago.
While in custody, he told AFP that he had contracted HIV three years ago and was "like heroin to girls".
Neighbours said he drove around the town offering large sums of money to students for sex and also frequented karaoke bars to pick up women.
Health officials printed some 2,000 flyers warning students to avoid him and posted banners throughout the town of Chaiyaphum, northern Thailand.
Health officials say the scale of the potential problem was not yet clear, with many women reluctant to come forward for an AIDS test, but said he could have had sex with up to 400 women and teenage girls.
Other officials said, based on interviews with his wife, that he had sex with at least 90 women. Schiemann told reporters Monday it was 1,000.
Figures released by a Chaiyaphum health official showed there have been 234 new cases of HIV/AIDS in the district of up to 50,000 people so far this year.
Officials said it marked a downward trend from 2003 when 535 new cases were recorded, the highest for at least four years.
However, the official said more people were being detected because of improved surveillance procedures and could not say if any of the cases were linked to Schiemann.
Sommart Troy, of Thai group Aids and Social Concern, said Monday that she wanted authorities carry out an AIDS test to confirm Schiemann's claims.
"We are concerned with his rights but if you know you have contracted it and go to have sexual intercourse with someone it's like intention to murder in general law," she told AFP at the court.
"I think he should be held for further investigation. It's not yet proven he has HIV yet."
The authorities claim the former German sailor has overstayed his 30-day visa by three years.
If found guilty, Schiemann was likely to be deported, according to Lieutenant Colonel Khampol Nonuch, heading the investigation. He could also be jailed for up to two years.
Thailand was widely praised in the 1990s for its unflinching response to the AIDS epidemic, including promoting the use of condoms which helped reduce new annual infections from a high of 143,000 in 1991 to 19,000 last year.
But the government was criticised in a UN report earlier this year for reducing the budget for prevention efforts amid growing concerns over unsafe sex among young people.
More than one million people in Thailand have become infected with HIV since the first case was reported here 20 years ago.
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