Phnom Penh, Dec 22 (IANS): A court in Cambodia's northwest Battambang province Monday charged an unlicensed doctor with spreading HIV to more than 100 people in the province's Roka village, the court's prosecutor Nuon San said.

"The court accused him of intentionally spreading HIV, conducting murder with cruel act under the Criminal Code's Article 205, and doing medical business without a licence from the ministry of health," Xinhua quoted Nuon as saying.

According to the Criminal Code's Article 205, the murder with cruel act will be punishable by the penalty of life imprisonment.

The unlicensed doctor was arrested last Wednesday on suspicion of spreading HIV to villagers in Roka village in Battambang province through using the same needles to inject drugs on different patients.

Seng Loch, deputy chief of Battambang Provincial Serious Crime Office, Sunday said the suspected doctor confessed that he had not changed needles and syringes when he injected drugs on different patients in the village, where he had regularly treated people since 2006.

According to Seng Loch, the doctor and his family do not have HIV.

Hundreds of residents in Roka village have flocked to have their blood tested for HIV at a Roka community health centre after a report of the mass outbreak emerged, said Hei Sik, head of a local HIV/AIDS test programme.

At least 106 out of some 800 villagers had been tested positive for the virus, he said, adding that the HIV carriers are aged between three and 82 years old.

Cambodia launched a full investigation into the mass HIV infections last Thursday. So far, no information has been released by the investigation team, which consisted of experts of the Cambodian health ministry, the World Health Organisation, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Unaids, Unicef and Pasteur Institute in Cambodia.