一神教餘毒

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巴紐婦遭燒死 2嫌被控謀殺

法新社法新社 – 2013年2月19日 下午1:20
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（法新社巴布亞紐幾內亞摩斯比港19日電） 巴布亞紐幾內亞1名20歲年輕母親被指為女巫，慘遭暴民活活燒死後，已有2人被控謀殺罪。

婦人雷尼雅塔（Kepari Leniata）6日在西高地省（Western Highlands）城市哈根山（Mount Hagen）遭剝光衣物，民眾朝她潑灑汽油，放在垃圾堆上點火將她活活燒死。

地方媒體報導，警方逮捕在場的40人偵訊後，有1名28歲的女子，和1名33歲的男子被控蓄意謀殺。

民眾指控雷尼雅塔施展巫術害死1名6歲男童，這一對男女據說是男童的親戚。

警方告訴「國家報」（The National）：「事情還沒結束。如果之後有任何證據顯示，有其他凶手依舊逍遙法外，我們也會將他們繩之以法。」（譯者：中央社林亭儀）

Two Charged in Brutal Killing of Papua New Guinea "Witch"

Papua New Guinea police have charged two people with the gruesome killing of Kepari Leniata. The 20-year-old mother of one was burned alive in front of hundreds of people, including young children, after being accused of witchcraft.

According to the Associated Press, Leniata was stripped naked, tortured with a hot iron rod, bound, doused in gasoline and then set on fire on top of a pile of car tires and trash

Janet Ware and Andrew Watea have been charged with murder for the slaying of Leniata. Ware and Watea are believed to be the mother and uncle of a 6-year-old boy who died in the hospital. Relatives of the boy believed that Leniata had somehow used sorcery to cause his death. The exact way in which she supposedly used witchcraft to kill the young child is not known.

More than 40 other people were detained last week in connection with Leniata's killing. Although only Ware and Watea have been charged at this time, police have said that more arrests are expected.

Witchcraft is often blamed for unexplained misfortunes in rural Papua New Guinea, so what happened to Leniata is not a complete shock. However the brutal manner in which she was killed has been met with outrage across the South Pacific island nation. Murder in punishable by death in Papua New Guinea, although no one has been hanged since the country became independent in 1975.

At the time of the murder, police were on the scene. They were unable to prevent Leniata from being burned alive because they were vastly outnumbered by the mob calling for the young woman’s blood. Even so, an internal investigation is under way into the police's actions at the scene.