Sentance for Spreading Aids

A former D.C. government worker who has known since 1996 that he has the AIDS virus was sentenced to a 21-year prison term yesterday for luring women and teenage girls into sexual relationships without telling them of the risks.

Sundiata Basir, 34, a onetime assistant to a deputy mayor, had unprotected sex with at least seven partners in what prosecutors called "a stunning picture of criminal recklessness." Four women and girls, including a 15-year-old, later discovered that they had the AIDS virus, prosecutors said. Basir offered no apologies yesterday in D.C. Superior Court, declaring at one point: "I'm not going to say anything. Every time I say something, I get another case."