Cambodian Phnom Penh municipal court has sentenced a HIV-positive man to 10 years in prison for intentionally infecting his wife with the virus, local media reported on Friday. 

Meas Mea, 40, was found guilty of forcing sex with his wife without wearing condom after he was confirmed as an HIV carrier, according to local Khmer newspaper Rasmei Kampuchea. The man also beat his wife when his sexual request was refused.

The man became the first person to be sentenced according to a 2002 law on AIDS prevention and control to punish those who knowingly spread the virus.

Cambodia has the highest HIV infection rate in Southeast Asia. Some 150,000 of Cambodia’s 13 million people are HIV-positive, which is equivalent to 1.9 percent of all adult aged between 15 and 49. Up to 90,000 infected people have died since the first case of HIV was diagnosed in 1993.

Source: Xinhua