NEW DELHI, India, March 8, Reuter: India has dropped charges of heroin smuggling against a Swiss National and is to deport him because he is suffering, from Aids.
A Swiss diplomat said today his Embassy agreed with the decision and was waiting for an ambulance plane from Switzerland to fly Christian Kasza out.
“Blood tests in a state-run New Delhi hospital and in medical institutes in Switzerland have proved conclusively that Kasza is suffering from Aids (Acquire Immune Deficiency Syndrome)”, the diplomat told Reuters.
Kasza, 30, arrested in Delhi last year on charges of heroin smuggling, was too weak to travel on a commercial plane, the diplomat said.
The Press Trust of India news agency said a court yesterday granted a government request to withdraw the charges against Kasza so he could leave the country immediately. Earlier, police told the court Kasza’s future stay in India was “detrimental and hazardous to the health of the people”.
The government told Parliament last month it would continue compulsory Aids tests on foreign students, despite street protests by African students in Delhi who called the tests racist.
Nearly 1,130 foreigners have been screened since the decree was issued in August and 10 were found infected with the Aids virus, the government said.
Officials had no word on whether Kasza’s planned deportation was the first of a foreign Aids victim.
Article extracted from this publication >> March 13, 1987
