A woman has been tied to a stake, shot with arrows and burned alive in Paraguay after being accused of witchcraft. 45-year-old Adolfina Ocampos was sentenced to death by the chief of Mbya Guarani ethnic group and brutally killed by members of the community.
Daily Mail reports that while the date of the killing is unclear, it occurred in the village of Tahehyi, 180 miles north of the captial Asuncion.
Nine men in the village have been charged for first-degree murder by a local prosecutor, Fany Aguilera and have admitted to killing the woman.
The UN Refugee Agency estimates that thousands of people worldwide are accused of being witches every year.
They are often abused, cast out of their families and communities and sometimes killed.
However Jose Zanardini, an Italian anthropologist and Catholic priest, said the recent case in Paraguay was unusual.
He said: 'I've been working in Paraguay for 40 years and I can't remember a similar episode of an execution for alleged sorcery.
'The tragic death of this woman is isolated and out of the ordinary within the co-existence of Paraguay's 20 ethnic indigenous groups. In general, the Indians are very peaceful and tolerant.'
The state agency for the protection of indigenous peoples said Wednesday that 'although the indigenous communities are ruled by customary law, their acts cannot violate the constitutional rights of respecting the life and the liberty of people'.
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