The Associated Press - Tuesday February 23, 1999

Raymond Barre testified at the start of the third and final week of the trial of former Prime Minister Laurent Fabius and his health and social affairs ministers. They are charged with manslaughter in the AIDS death of five people and "attacking the integrity of a person" for the infection of two others still alive.

The seven were infected in 1985 after receiving blood transfusions contaminated with the HIV virus, which leads to AIDS.

The ministers, who served from 1984-1986, are accused of keeping an American HIV test off the market while a French test was being prepared and for failing to import expensive heated blood supplies cleansed of HIV.

The special court, made up of 12 lawmakers and three judges, is expected to deliver its verdict March 5 on Fabius, former Health Minister Edmond Herve and former Social Affairs Minister Georgina Dufoix.

Barre, a conservative prime minister from 1976 to 1981, gave brief testimony in defense of Fabius, who served under socialist President Francois Mitterrand. "I don't think that excessive delays were involved in this case, considering the delays" at the prime minister's office, Barre said.

Some 4,000 people were infected with AIDS in France through transfusions in the mid-1980s, and hundreds have died. The trial concerns a critical period in 1985. The former ministers face up to five years in prison and a $90,000 fine on the first count and up to three years in prison and a $55,000 fine on the second.
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