Board denies parole for Hamilton’s ‘HIV killer’ Johnson Aziga

A Hamilton man convicted of manslaughter and other offences for not disclosing his HIV-positive status to sexual partners has been denied parole.

During a hearing last Tuesday, members of the Parole Board of Canada immediately rejected 67-year-old Johnson Aziga’s application for day and full parole.

Aziga was found guilty in 2009 of two counts of first-degree murder – believed to be the first convictions of their kind in Canada at the time – as well as 10 counts of aggravated sexual assault and one count of attempted aggravated sexual assault.

The Uganda native learned in 1996 that he was HIV-positive. Public health officials repeatedly counselled him about the risk of transmission through unprotected sex and the risks of AIDS.

In 2002, he was ordered under the Health Protection and Promotion Act to abstain from unprotected sex without disclosing his HIV status to his partner but frequently disobeyed it.

READ MORE: Court demotes Hamilton man’s HIV murder convictions to manslaughter

One year later, Aziga was served with a court order with similar conditions.

Between 2000 and 2002 he did not disclose his HIV status before having unprotected sex with multiple women, two of whom died.

In January 2023, the Court of Appeal for Ontario downgraded Aziga’s murder convictions to manslaughter verdicts due to incorrect jury instructions about intent by the trial judge.

The three-judge panel upheld his dangerous offender designation, which comes with an indefinite sentence.

– With files from The Canadian Press