(Beijing) International AIDS groups are expressing shock and outrage over the treatment in court of an HIV positive man on trial for manslaughter.
The man, identified by only as Mu by the official Chinese Press, ordered to wear a surgical mask and rubber gloves before entering the prisoners box in the District Peoples Intermediate Court in Xi'an, in Shaanxi Province.
The procedure showed the lack of understanding of HIV/AIDS that continues in China.
Guards had refused to process the man for trial unless he wore the protective garb. They went so far as allowing to enter the courtroom without the traditional handcuffs.
"We were afraid the steel handcuffs might rub his skin," one of the policemen said after the trial.
Mu is accused of killing a man in a fight.
The judge hearing the case told Chinese media that court staff threw out a pen used by Mu for fear of contracting HIV for it.
"Our extra measures do not represent discrimination against AIDS-infected suspects," Ma added. "We think the extra protection ieves the pressure on the court police. With no masks, how could we deal with spitting? With no gloves, what could we do if he cut himself?"
But AIDS workers accused the court and law enforcement of discrimination.
"This is definitely discrimination against AIDS victims," said Hu Jia, an AIDS worker in Beijing. "These measures are as ridiculous as when AIDS patients were first treated in a Beijing hospital. Doctors would wear rubber overshoes and a protection suit, stricter even than the precautions against SARS last year.
Another AIDS worker, who requested anonymity from the Chinese press said: "How can AIDS victims be treated in a fair and more tolerant manner when even the court dares not use the pen used by him? Judges and police are representatives of the government, so how will the public react if they treat AIDS patients like this? The efforts to understand AIDS can be ruined by this."
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