US court orders Brochez to hand over copies of leaked HIV data
A 34-year-old American at the centre of Singapore's HIV registry leak has been ordered by a US court to immediately hand over all copies he owned of any confidential data from the Singapore Government.
Mikhy Farrera-Brochez must also permanently delete all sensitive or private information obtained from the Singapore authorities, whether it be saved on any computer or uploaded to any platform.
He has until March 29 to certify that the deletions have been made. If he fails to comply with the injunction, he can be held in contempt of court and be fined or jailed.
The order on Monday was part of a preliminary injunction sought by Singapore's Ministry of Health (MOH), which filed a civil lawsuit against Farrera-Brochez in February in a Kentucky federal court to limit his spread of the stolen data.
The data involved the confidential information of 14,200 people with HIV, including their names, contact details and medical information.
Farrera-Brochez had gained access to the HIV registry through his partner, who was then head of MOH's National Public Health Unit.
According to the latest court order, he must also remove all posts on all social media platforms which refer to the confidential information or are related to the data leak, and is banned from making any more such posts.
Anyone else he sent the data to must also do the same.
Farrera-Brochez is already barred from disclosing the confidential information under a temporary restraining order, but Monday's injunction goes a step further in requiring the deletions and removal of information online.
US District Judge Danny Reeves said Farrera-Brochez was likely to continue in his efforts to spread the leaked information if the preliminary injunction was not granted.
"The defendant has indicated in a Facebook post that he feels 'wronged' by the Government of Singapore and has repeatedly threatened to disseminate the information if his husband is not released from custody," said the judge in the written grounds for his decision, seen by The Straits Times.
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