ZAGREB, Dec 2 (AFP) - Croatian police are investigating an anonymous letter from a sailor claiming to have deliberately infected prostitutes with the HIV virus that causes AIDS, a report said Thursday.
The author, identifying himself as a 38-year-old sailor from the northern Adriatic town of Rijeka, claimed he had infected several prostitutes in Rijeka and two in Zagreb, the HINA news agency reported.
The man said he wanted revenge for being infected with HIV by a prostitute during one of his travels. In the letter, received last week by police in Rijeka and Zagreb, he partly identified the prostitutes he claimed to have infected.
Two women corresponding to descriptions in the letter were found in Zagreb and were undergoing tests for HIV, police said.
Deliberate transmission of an infectious disease can be punished with up to eight years jail under Croatian law.
Since 1985 some 470 people have been infected with HIV in Croatia, of whom 218 acquired AIDS, out of a total population of 4.4 milllion, according to official figures.
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