Kazakhstan appeals court upholds prison terms in AIDS case

SHYMKENT, Kazakhstan (AFP) — An appeals court in Kazakhstan Friday upheld prison sentences for 21 people convicted after 118 children and 14 mothers were infected with HIV in public hopsitals and nine deaths.

But the court said four of the women would only begin serving their sentences once their children turned 14 years old.

Two of them would start their jail terms in 2018, another in 2014 and the last, who is currently eight months pregnant, would only start her sentence in 2021.

The heaviest sentence passed by the court in Shymkent at the end of June was eight years in jail for three of the defendants.

The scandal shocked the oil-rich Central Asian country ...