A court in Tanzania has sentenced four people to death by hanging for killing a 50-year-old albino for his body parts, said officials on Friday.
According to officials, the court sentenced the four men after finding them guilty of murdering Lyaku Willy, cutting off his head and legs and dumping his remains in a village close to Lake Victoria in north-western Tanzania.
With the latest verdict, seven people have now been awarded death sentences for killing albinos for their body parts in Tanzania since September.
Three other Tanzanians were sentenced to death in September for the killing of a 14 year-old albino teenager in December 2008. That incident happened in Bukombe district of northwestern Shinyanga province last December.
Killings of albinos are common in Tanzania, where potions made from the body parts of albinos are believed to bring good luck and wealth. Witch doctors claim that body parts of albinos, who lack pigment in their skin, eyes and hair, would bring luck in love, life and business to those who possess them.
Though over 50 albino murders that have taken place in Tanzania over the past two years, the death sentencing in September was the first guilty verdict since the wave of albino killings began in the east African nation in 2007. Tanzanian government hopes that awarding death sentence to offenders would help in deterring people from killing albino people.
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