Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1995. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The New York Times - Saturday, December 2, 1995
A German court today found three company officials and a laboratory technician guilty of distributing inadequately tested blood products that infected at least three people with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Two of the three have died, prosecutors said.
The case, in Koblenz, arose from disclosures two years ago that plasma tainted with H.I.V. had been distributed to scores of hospitals. The negligence charges relate to 71,302 batches of plasma distributed to more than 50 hospitals.
In today's ruling, Judge Theo Alsbach found four personnel from the company, UB Plasma, guilty of negligence. Ulrich Kleist, the owner and managing director, and Dieter Stuer, the controller, were sentenced to four years in prison; a laboratory physician was sentenced to three years and a technician was given a two-year suspended sentence.
The company has since closed.
The sentences were relatively light because Judge Alsbach did not accept the prosecution contention that the executives knew their actions carried a fatal risk.
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