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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Malawi: 3 people killed after being forced to drink potion |
| 2008-10-02 |
| (SomaliNet) Police said on Wednesday that three people died in Malawi after they were forced by a herbalist and a mob of villagers to drink a potion meant to cleanse them of witchcraft. Looks like it worked. "The three died after they were forced to drink the concoction. They collapsed and died within a few minutes," police spokesperson Dave Chingwalu said. Sources say the herbalist who prepared the potion, identified as 41-year-old Patricia Chimutu, has been charged with murder, which can carry the death sentence in this poor southern African nation. Two women aged 72 and 68, as well as a 64-year-old man, were suspected by villagers in the southern district of Mwanza of practising witchcraft and teaching it to children, Chingwalu said. Chimutu had prepared the potion to prove if the three were witches, and a mob forced them to drink it, he said. The herbalist had told the three that they would vomit if they were witches, but nothing would happen if they were not, he added. After the deaths, Chimutu threatened that anyone who informed the police would also die and began preparing to bury the dead in secret. But a village chief reported the crime to authorities, the spokesperson said. Belief in witchcraft runs deep in this conservative nation. In March, two sisters allegedly torched to death two young children to exorcise them of witchcraft. They were arrested and charged with murder. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 what happened to the good ol' days when someone who was suspected of witchcraft was burned a the stake? |
| Posted by: Abu do you love 2008-10-02 23:09 |
| #1 I wonder how many previous generations, before the big global grid, guys like him have been pulling the scam. |
| Posted by: Tranquil Mechanical Yeti 2008-10-02 09:43 |