Thomas. Thomas was given a 14-year prison sentence at the Helsinki court on 10 July 1997 for 17 counts of attempted manslaughter. Thomas was found to have infected 5 of the 17 women with HIV, and was ordered to pay damages of $63,000–$73,000 to each infected victim. The sentence was widely criticised within the legal system, because under Finnish law the maximum sentence for multiple counts of attempted manslaughter is 12 years. Lauri Lehtimaja, the Ombudsman of the Parliament, gave a warning to the court judge about his misuse of the law. The Helsinki Court of Appeal lowered the sentence in December 1997 to be 11 years and 6 months of imprisonment. The documents of the case were classified for 40 years. In 2002 Steven Thomas was quietly released and deported from Finland to an unknown location. A Finnish man convicted of spreading HIV knowingly through unprotected sex with many women was Aki Matti Hakkarainen. He was first convicted in 2005 and sentenced to one year and nine months in prison for attempted aggravated assault. In August 2007, Hakkarainen was arrested by Rovaniemi police after a report from a young woman saying she had contracted HIV from Hakkarainen during unprotected sex. On 5 October 2007, police published the name and photo of Hakkarainen in newspapers in an effort to reach all women who had had sexual intercourse with him. In court, Hakkarainen admitted to having unprotected sex with the women but denied trying to infect them with the virus. On 22 April 2008, Rovaniemi court concluded that Hakkarainen knowingly infected five women with HIV, and in August 2008 he was found guilty of five counts of aggravated assault and 14 counts of attempted aggravated assault. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. He was also ordered to pay 45,000–55,000 euros compensation to the five women that contracted the virus. Germany In the Federal Republic of Germany on 16 August 2010, Nadja Benaissa of the German pop music group No Angels admitted to sex with several men while knowing her HIV-positive status, and infecting one of those several, who subsequently brought the case against her. She faced prison, but was instead given probation (two years) and community service. Women groups were outraged at the possibility of a woman being charged for negligently spreading HIV. She denied any intent to infect, apologising profusely and saying "When I was arrested I realised