Four sentenced to death for killing albino in Tanzania

A court in Tanzania's northwestern region of Geita on Thursday sentenced four people to death by hanging after they were convicted of killing a woman with albinism.

The prosecution told the court that the victim died after the accused people chopped off both her legs and her right arm on March 11, 2008.

Judge Joacquine Demello said the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused people had indeed killed the woman with albinism.

The judgment was delivered a few days following reports of a fresh wave of killings of albinos in the east African country associated with witchcraft.

On Monday, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete expressed shock over the fresh wave of killings of albinos, saying this barbaric cruelty, which has also given Tanzania a bad image, cannot be tolerated.

Kikwete called on the arrest and charging of perpetrators of such brutal killings, saying his government had relentlessly worked round the clock to prevent the crime ever since he assumed the presidency in 2005.

The killings of albinos, which were often motivated by the use of body parts for ritual purposes, have claimed the lives of at least 76 people and 56 others have been injured in Tanzania since 2000. Endi