Aids rebuke

(First Edition)

FRANCE, April 26 (Reuter) - France was condemned by the European Court of Human Rights yesterday on Tuesday for taking more than four years to settle a claim by a haemophiliac infected with Aids through contaminated blood, Reuter reports from Strasbourg. , France, April 26 (Reuter) -

The Strasbourg-based court ruled unanimously that Aids victim Alain Vallee's rights had been violated because French authorities took an excessive length of time to compensate him. Vallee is in the terminal phase of the incurable illness.

The court ordered the French state to pay the 30-year-old Parisian 200,000 francs (dollars 35,000) in damages and 59,300 francs (dollars 10,000) in expenses, bringing the total paid out during the proceedings in Vallee's case to 3.1 million francs (dollars 535,000).