Man killed by own nephews over witchcraft

Advertisement
Malawi24 Breaking News

Malawi Police in Dedza district are hunting for four suspects who murdered their 70 year-old uncle accusing him of practicing witchcraft.

Dedza deputy police publicist constable Cassim Manda confirmed the development and identified the deceased as Limion Julius of Mpango village, traditional authority Kasumbu in the district of Dedza.

Dedza witch
Slain.

The police publicist explained that the incident took place on the night of Wednesday when the four accused Julius of bewitching a certain person in the same village who died after a short illness. According to constable Manda, the four murderers hit Julius on the head with pestles and he died on the spot.

A postmortem conducted at Dedza district hospital indicated that Julius’s death was due to severe head injuries. Currently, no one has been arrested on the matter since all four suspects are on the run.

Chapter 7:20 of laws of Malawi section 20 of the witchcraft act spurn any ordeal which is likely and directly to result in the death of a person or to bodily injury.

Manda explained that charging person with witchcraft is also prohibited on section 4 of Witchcraft Act and perpetrators shall be liable to imprisonment for five years.

He urged people to report to police if someone accuses them of practising witchcraft and he promised that perpetrator shall be dealt with accordingly.

All four suspects are expected to face murder charges in accordance with section 209 of the penal code.

In December 2015, a 40 year-old man was also murdered at Nemon Katengeza after villagers accused him of practicing witchcraft and Dedza police is still investigate matter to establish murderers.