news HIV man hopes ex-wife deported

[rwilli1]

HIV man hopes ex-wife deported



Sun Oct 25, 7:54 AM

A Toronto man who contracted HIV from his former stripper wife is hoping he's alive to see her get deported to Thailand.


"I am not going to give up my fight," Percy Whiteman said of Suwalee Iamkhong. "My life is not a game for anyone to play with."

Whiteman and his lawyer appeared before a Federal Court of Canada last Thursday in an ongoing battle with immigration officials to get Iamkhong deported due to her criminal record. The case was remanded until Jan. 4.

He has launched a $30-million lawsuit against the Canada Border Services Agency and Zanzibar Strip Club in Toronto in connection with the case.

He claims Iamkhong, 40, a former stripper at the Zanzibar, was allowed into the country with HIV and that led to his life being placed in jeopardy. Lawyers for the government are trying to have the case thrown out.

"I am the one who's suffering with HIV," Whiteman said. "My life is on the line and nothing has happened to her."

The pair were married from 1997 to 2004, when she told him that she had HIV.

Iamkhong arrived in Canada in 1995 and danced at the Zanzibar until 2004.

She was sentenced in August 2007 to two years in jail after being convicted of criminal negligence causing bodily harm for infecting Whiteman.

Iamkhong appealed her sentence and it was reduced to two years less a day, allowing her to appeal the deportation order.