PNG: Sorcery killing creates legal dilemma

Police on Bougainville in Papua New Guinea say they are investigating the torture and killing of a man who was accused of practising sorcery.

It’s a situation that is testing the ability of Papua New Guinea police to charge people for using sorcery as a weapon.

The dead man, Albert Bute, from the Bana district village of Nokaia, was last week accused of using black magic to cause the death of a woman three weeks ago.

The woman’s relatives then raided the village and kidnapped Bute and three others.

Bute was killed and the others held hostage, one managed to flee on foot while police managed to negotiate the release of the other two.

However, one of the hostages, an old woman, is now being held by police in the provincial capital, Arawa, after she allegedly admitted to practising sorcery.

The commander of central Bougainville police, Januarius Vosivai, says that despite there being no scientific evidence, police are still looking to charge the woman, despite the Sorcery Act which outlawed sorcery being repealed by the national government after a wave of high profile killings last year.

“There still haven’t been any arrests, but we’ve put together an investigation team and our officers from central Bougainville are trying to work on the investigation.

“We are trying to investigate the allegations, sorcery, and at the same time the murder of the sorcery suspect.

“The Sorcery Act in Papua New Guinea has been repealed and we have a situation now where one of the hostages has admitted to using sorcery to kill the woman who died three or four weeks ago.

“So that is the situation we are in now, we are trying to find alternate means of how we can deal with this. I mean, one of the hostages has admitted to practicing sorcery.

“When we managed to negotiate the release of the two other hostages we took the lady to Arawa police station and we had one of our officers do an interview of the woman and she admitted that she and the deceased did actually agree to kill the woman using sorcery.

“That’s the problem that we are currently experiencing. I mean, there has to be some scientific evidence to prove that what these two people used was able to cause the death of the woman.

“So, we are trying to investigate the sorcery but at the same time the matter of the old man’s death.

“We will have to consult with our lawyers to find alternative charges to lay on the old woman. I mean, she’s admitted to sorcery, but because of the repeal of the act, we have to find alternate charges.

Commander Vovisai says there is the option of not laying any charges against the woman who has confessed to sorcery killing because there is no scientific basis for sorcery.

“We’ll try and consult our criminal code act and I mean because these two people, the deceased man and the old woman, who we are keeping at Arawa, did conspire to kill the woman, so maybe if there’s any chance of charging her for conspiracy to commit murder of something, I think we could use that.

“Otherwise if we have no other options we have no choice but to have the woman released.