An herbal medicine shop owner who claims his drugs can cure AIDS was charged with violating a law that forbids the advertisement of supposed “cures” for the killer disease, a court official said.
Tuk Dara, whose advertisements for the miracle drug have run almost daily the past three months in the Kampuchea Thmei Daily newspaper, was charged Monday with advertising fake medicine, Phnom Penh Municipal Court Chief Prosecutor Uk Savuth said Tuesday.
An investigating judge will determine whether Tuk Dara should be arrested or his shop closed, Uk Savuth said.
The $20 five-day treatment cures “90 percent” of a patient’s AIDS, Tuk Dara said Tuesday, though patients still test positive for the disease after treatment. He claimed the drug cured him of HIV. “The court can come and test the medicine [to determine] whether it is fake or not,” he said.
“I don’t cheat people.”
Health officials disagree.
“The court should close the shop and punish him according to the law,” said Ly Po, deputy director of the National AIDS Authority.
Kampuchea Thmei Daily was ordered to pull Tuk Dara’s advertisements last week, said Thieng Vandarong, deputy director-general of the Information Ministry’s audio and visual department.