WHY WAS A GIRL-BAND MEMBER LED AWAY FROM A GIG IN HANDCUFFS?
Astring of No.1 singles, albums and sell-out tours had propelled Nadja Benaissa to superstar status. With her combination of good looks and undeniable talent, back in 2000 she’d won the German TV talent show Popstars and become a member of girl group No Angels, alongside Lucy Diakovska, Sandy Mölling, Jessica Wahls and, until 2003, Vanessa Petruo.
The five girls took Germany by storm, selling five million albums to become the country’s most successful girl group. As their faces were splashed on national newspapers and magazines, comparisons were made to the Spice Girls and Girls Aloud. Life couldn’t have been better for the newly famous 21-year-old and her group.
After an intense three years of performing live and a few chart hits, the group broke up in 2003 but then re-formed as a foursome in 2007, going on to compete at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008. A year later, the band embarked on a comeback tour, giving their old fans – and new ones – the chance to see them again.
NIGHTCLUB ARREST
But just before they were about to perform in a Frankfurt nightclub in April 2009, Nadja was arrested, handcuffed and led away in front of her flabbergasted fans. She remained in custody for 10 days. The alleged crime? She had been arrested on suspicion of having unprotected sex with three men, while knowing she was HIV positive and keeping it from them. One of the men had been infected. Under German law at the time, failure to disclose this was punishable by up to 10 years in prison – or life, if the infected person went on to die of AIDS.
As the news got out, Nadja began hitting the headlines for very different reasons. Tabloids slammed the pop princess, while broadsheets and HIV campaign groups focused on the ‘witch hunt’ manner of her arrest. The country was captivated by the sensational allegations. The man accusing her was a 34-year-old art dealer. After knowing one another for a short time, they’d slept together on various occasions, sometimes with, sometimes without, protection. He had then gone on to contract HIV. Another two men had also come forward to say she’d had unprotected sex with them as well. The following year, in August, Nadja appeared in court in Darmstadt, near Frankfurt, where she admitted having unprotected sex and keeping her HIV status a secret, but denied deliberately infecting anyone. Her pleas, however, sounded weak as her accuser read out a devastating victim statement about the effects of her deception.
“I didn’t know if I would be dead from one day to the next,” he said, shaking with emotion. “You have created a lot of misery in the world… My quality of life has shrunk enormously. I cannot travel to many countri
