BANGKOK, Nov 25 (AFP) - A German national at the center of an HIV scare involving hundreds of Thai women was arrested for trying to enter the country for the third time and will be expelled, police said Friday.
Hans-Otto Schiemann, 54, was detained Thursday night in the northeastern province of Chaiyaphum and will be handed over to immigration police.
"He was arrested late last night at (a) bus terminal in response to a request by immigration police and we will hand him over to immigration today," said Colonel Boonlert Wongwatjana, Chaiyaphum police superintendent.
Immigration police in Bangkok confirmed that they will expel Schiemann as soon as possible but declined to say how and when he re-entered Thailand.
Schiemann, 54, who claims to be infected with HIV and had unprotected sex with hundreds of Thais, was arrested for a second time in March after re-entering the country through Thailand's main international airport despite being blacklisted.
Schiemann, a one-legged army veteran, had been deported earlier in the month for overstaying his 30-day visa.
Neighbours in Chaiyaphum said last year 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 Chaiyaphum.
The officials said the scale of the problem was not clear, with many women reluctant to come forward for an AIDS test, but said Schiemann could have had sex with up to 400 women and teenage girls.
Thailand has no law allowing action against people who knowingly infect someone with HIV.
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