4 to hang for albino murder

2009-11-03 10:02

Dar es Salaam - A Tanzanian court on Monday sentenced four suspects to death by hanging for the murder of a 10-year-old albino boy last November, an official said.

State lawyer Edwin Kakolaki said the presiding judge ruled that the prosecution had "proved its case beyond reasonable doubt" and handed down the sentence in a court in the country's northwestern Shinyanga town.

The ruling brings to seven the number of suspects sentenced to death for the murder of albinos in Tanzania. Three men were handed death sentences in September by the same court.

Since 2007, more than 50 albinos, many of them children, have been murdered and their limbs and organs sold to witchdoctors who use them to concoct charms meant to bring wealth and good luck.

Tanzania retains the death penalty for murder and treason but is abolitionist in practice. Hundreds of death sentences have been commuted in recent years and the last execution dates back to 1995.

- AFP