One of Germany's biggest pop stars has admitted she's no angel.
Nadja Benaissa, of the best-selling girl group No Angels, told a German court on Monday that she knowingly exposed multiple men to the HIV virus without telling them she was a carrier.
Benaissa, 28, is on trial this week, accused of "grievous bodily harm and attempted aggravated assult," British newspaper The Guardian reports.
The singer allegedly hid her illness from three men she had sex with between 2000 and 2004, one of whom later became infected with the HIV virus.
The 34-year-old man says he and Benaissa had unprotected sex multiple times, and that her aunt ultimately told him the singer was HIV positive, causing him to get himself tested.
"You have unleashed a lot of misery into the world," the man said to Benaissa in the courtroom Monday.
During the five-day trial, the Daily Mail reports, AIDS expert Professor Josef Eberle of Ludwig-Maximillian University in Munich is expected to testify that the man was infected by someone else.
Benaissa tested positive for the virus when she was 17, but kept it a secret from her sexual partners because she didn't think it was likely that she would infect them.
"I'd been told the likelihood of infecting someone or that I would develop the illness [AIDS] was more or less zero," she said in a statement read aloud by her lawyer.
"For that reason, I kept the news even from my close group of friends [as] I didn't want my daughter to be stigmatised," the statement continued. "I never made it public because I feared that it would mean the end of the band."
In Germany, not telling your partner that you are HIV positive before you have sex is punishable by jail time.
If convicted, Benaissa could face between six months and 10 years behind bars. She could even be sentenced to life imprisonment if the man who claims she infected him dies, the Guardian reports.
In the face of the accusations, an emotional Benaissa expressed her regret on Monday.
"I never wanted this to happen to any one of my partners," she said. "In those days I was careless...I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart."
No Angels shot to fame in 2000 when they were discovered on an "American Idol"-type talent show.
They are Germany's most successful female band to date, and have had four No. 1 singles and three No. 1 albums.
A verdict is expected August 26.
