Ghanaian convicted of infecting Israeli women with HIV

The Tel Aviv District Court on Monday convicted Ghanan foreign worker of spreading the HIV virus by having intercourse with three Israeli women.

Chris Serfo, 31, was also convicted of raping a fourth woman, as well as assaulting and threatening four women who had filed complaints against him.

Serfo committed the crimes between the years 1997 and 2000. Three of the four women he had sex with were consequently infected with the AIDS virus.

Despite the fact that the indictment dealt with only four complainants, the names of at least three other women with whom Serfo had sex with came up during the hearings. He was found guilty of "action that may have spread disease," a crime that carries a maximum penalty of seven years in jail.

The court rejected the defendant's claim that the women had conspired against him in their complaints. The court decided that it was proven that there was no prior connection between the women who testified against Serfo, and that each woman got into a relationship with the defendant in separate times and circumstances.

Judge Sheli Timan concluded his decision to find Serfo guilty by saying that he did not remember many cases in which the intensity of the evidence and their weight were as significant as they were in this case.

"I do not remember many cases in which the complainants' credibility was as clear and unequivocal, while the defendant showed such lack of credibility, confusion and lack of charisma," Timan said.

The judge added that he hadn't worked on a case that was so difficult to deal with emotionally for a long time.