Five AIDS patients were sentenced Tuesday to varying prison terms for stealing by a court in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.

The five people, aged between 20 to 30, were accused of stealing 14 cell phones and six wallets involving 14,234 yuan (US$1,736) in streets and markets in Hangzhou from March to November of 2003. The court gave them 18-month to three-year-and-a-half terms in prison and fined them 1,000 to 2,000 yuan (US$122 to 244).

The AIDS criminals would be sent to a special jail in Hangzhou where they would be closely monitored and receive special medical care, said the local judiciary department.

(Xinhua News Agency March 3, 2004)