A Canadian Woman Was Just Arrested and Charged with Witchcraft - VICE

After a months-long investigation by police in a small Ontario town, a Canadian woman who sold herself as a psychic has been charged with witchcraft.

This weekend police in Milton, a small town in Ontario, arrested 32-year-old Dorie Stevenson who was running a psychic business out of her basement. She was charged with extortion, fraud over $5,000 [$3,813 USD], and witchcraft/fortune telling. If you’re thinking, whoa, Canada has witchcraft laws? Well, the answer would be yes, but they’re probably not exactly what you think.

It's covered under section 365 in the Criminal Code under the title “pretending to practice witchcraft.” It focuses on anyone who “fraudulently” gets paid to tell fortunes, “pretends to exercise or to use any kind of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, or conjuration,” or using their “skill in or knowledge of an occult or crafty science” to find where lost things are.

A Canadian Woman Was Just Arrested and Charged with Witchcraft - VICE

Calabar Pastor Ties Children To Tree, Assault Them With Machete Over Alleged Witchcraft | crossriverwatch.com

Two children age, 10 and 7, were this morning, rescued from being murdered by some members of Divine Zion of God Church Ikot Abasi Effiom district of Akpabuyo LGA.

Led by one Prophet David Effiom Zion and some members of their family, the children were accused by their cousin of being witches and allegedly snatching her baby in a dream.

The stigma that confronted the children since they were branded witches took on a new dimension when the children were taken to the forest, tied to a tree, battered and assaulted with a machete by some members of the family, leaving them with cuts and bruises all over their bodies.

This happened on the heels of the screening of the movie ‘The Fake Prophet’ in Ikot Offiong Ambai community in Akpabuyo Local Government Area (LGA) by Basic Rights Counsel Initiative (BRCI), a child’s rights organization based in Calabar.

Calabar Pastor Ties Children To Tree, Assault Them With Machete Over Alleged Witchcraft | crossriverwatch.com

Hunting for humans: African albinos live in fear - CNN.com

For Agness Jonathan, every day is a gamble with her children's lives.

Simple questions like whether they should go to school carry an unimaginable risk of death and dismemberment to satisfy a barbaric demand. 

 

This is because her daughters are living with albinism, a genetic condition resulting in little or no pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes. And this makes them a target.

It is children like Agness' who, according to a newly released Amnesty International report, are being hunted like animals in Malawi where their bones are sold in the belief the body parts bring wealth, happiness and good luck.

The report chronicles the day-to-day lives of those living with the condition, and details the extent of a recent surge in killings of albinos living in the landlocked country in southern Africa. 

 

The bloodiest month was April this year, when Amnesty says four people were murdered, including a baby.

Hunting for humans: African albinos live in fear - CNN.com

Fighting Modern-Day Witch Hunts in India’s Remote Northeast - The New York Times

Not only am I reminded of the Salem 'Witch Trials' but also the tail end of the Satanic Panic and Cameron Todd Willingham who on February 17, 2004 was murdered by the state of Texas. [I say murdered because Willingham was innocent but beyond the scope of this posting.]

Why you might ask?

In his trial, Tim Gregory (master’s degree in marriage and family issues with no published works in the field of sociopathic behavior) was cited as stating, ",,,I see there’s an association many times with cultive-type of activities. A focus on death, dying. Many times individuals that have a lot of this type of art have interest in satanic-type activities."

At one point, Jackson showed Gregory Exhibit No. 60—a photograph of an Iron Maiden poster that had hung in Willingham’s house—and asked the psychologist to interpret it. “This one is a picture of a skull, with a fist being punched through the skull,” Gregory said; the image displayed “violence” and “death.” Gregory looked at photographs of other music posters owned by Willingham. “There’s a hooded skull, with wings and a hatchet,” Gregory continued. “And all of these are in fire, depicting—it reminds me of something like Hell. And there’s a picture—a Led Zeppelin picture of a falling angel. . . . I see there’s an association many times with cultive-type of activities. A focus on death, dying. Many times individuals that have a lot of this type of art have interest in satanic-type activities.”

It is this mentality of the prevailing culture that allows for it.  We have our Satanic Panic, India has its witchcraft.  And for those that have any doubts as where a theocracy may lead, once a system of law is based on religion, anyone can be suspect.

For three decades, Birubala Rabha, an activist, has fought to end this violent, retrograde practice of punishing women accused of witchcraft. She works with state legislators and residents of rural villages to investigate accusers and protect victims and their families. A videojournalist, Vikram Singh, traveled to Assam State to report on Ms. Rabha’s work.

Rabha's claim to fame A State in India Just Outlawed Witch-Hunting, but Many Fear That Won’t Stop the Practice.

Fighting Modern-Day Witch Hunts in India’s Remote Northeast - The New York Times

Albino Girl, 5, Kidnapped And Killed By Gunmen

Gunmen stormed into the child's home in the early hours of Wednesday morning, attacking her parents before abducting her.

They were pursued by the family's neighbours, who later discovered the girl's dismembered body.

A local spokeswoman told the AFP news agency that "the bandits had taken one of her arms".

An investigation has been launched into the girl's death, but police are certain the gunmen were targeting the girl as nothing else was taken from the property.

It is the first reported killing of a person with albinism in Burundi for four years.

Often, they are murdered so their body parts can be used in witchcraft rituals.

Albino Girl, 5, Kidnapped And Killed By Gunmen

The sinister truth behind India’s 'witch' killings - Channel NewsAsia

Despite the intensity of blind faith that drives these attacks, experts believe it is just a veil to disguise the real motives. Data is revealing that accusers tend to be those who live in close proximity to the victim, a clue to the motives.

Lawyer and leading activist in New Delhi, Ms Madhu Mehra, told INSIGHT: “They’re accused by neighbours, by extended family members. We have seen a couple of cases where the man remarried and his children accused the stepmother of witchcraft.”

Family disputes over property, land rights of women and gender conflicts tend to be factors that lead to women being labelled as witches.For example, a woman who voices her opinions, who refuses sexual advances, or whose harvests turn out better than her neighbours’, tend to be most at risk of being labelled witches, say experts.

“When the woman is a widow or does not have a son, or husband has left her, or even if she is living in her father’s house but does not have a brother, people hatch schemes to get hold of the property. And we have also seen that when a woman is vocal, when she talks too much or has leadership qualities, the woman is branded a witch in order to control her,” said Ms Sachi Kumari, a social worker and activist who has saved many such victims.

The sinister truth behind India’s 'witch' killings - Channel NewsAsia

Mercedes Salazar: 'Blood Ritual' Witchcraft Kidnap Revenge Plot Ends In Woman's Arrest, Police Say

Before we delve into this bizarre story, lets get a few terms correct.  Sometimes it pays to have an odd grouping of friends.

Pagan is an umbrella term for any religion that doesn't fall under the "Major 3." A Pagan is someone who worships many gods or who worships nature and the Earth. Many gods can include both the deities such as Cerridwen and Brigid, but also the gods of Christianity and Judaism. We are taught to embrace all religions, and there are many Christian Wiccans or Jews who practice witchcraft.

Wicca is a religion with it's own practices. Basically, like other kinds of Pagan religions, it is nature based. Wiccan are considered to be "white witches" and one of their tenets is, "An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will." They are considered the "fluffy bunnies" of the witchcraft world because they are thought of as the "good" witches.  Witchcraft is considered to be a religion in some circles, but it's also what witches practice. Witchcraft is casting spells, making potions, etc.

So, to confuse you even more, here it is in a nutshell: All Wiccans are witches, but not all witches are Wiccans. All Wiccans are Pagans, but not all Pagans are Wiccans. Finally, some witches are Pagans, but some are not - and some Pagans practice witchcraft, while others choose not to.

So with that said, as my friend notes, "only a crazy person would do that to another,,,it's easy to throw the blame on witches and witchcraft."

Mercedes Salazar carried out a horrifying witchcraft blood ritual on another woman who was kidnapped as part of a chilling revenge plot, police in San Antonio, Texas, say. The 32-year-old woman with a lengthy criminal record stretching back to when she was 17, was arrested early on Sunday, in connection with the bizarre kidnapping of a woman late last month who was discovered screaming in terror in a home in west San Antonio last month.

The whole frightening scenario could have been lifted entirely from a low-budget horror movie. But the ordeal was all-too-real for the 25-year-old woman, who police have not named publicly, but who they now say is the former girlfriend of Angel Salazar, a brother of Mercedes Salazar, who died last month in another horrific kidnapping that ended in his murder at the hands of his abductors.

Mercedes Salazar apparently believed that the ex-girlfriend was somehow behind the slaying of her brother, Angel, and plotted the diabolical kidnapping with three accomplices as revenge — and possibly, police say, as way to extract the truth by means of a blood ritual, which involved slicing open her palm and cutting off a large swath of her hair — for use in some sort of witchcraft, or at least what the suspects believed was witchcraft.

Mercedes Salazar: 'Blood Ritual' Witchcraft Kidnap Revenge Plot Ends In Woman's Arrest, Police Say

UPDATED::Assam, India woman dismembered and beheaded by villagers for 'witchcraft' | Daily Mail Online

Correction::  According to BBC, the victim was Purni Orang with sixteen arrests being made. 

Police in India say they have held 16 people in connection with the killing of a woman accused of practising witchcraft.

Purni Orang, 63, was stripped naked and beheaded by villagers in Assam state, after she was blamed for illness in a tribal settlement in Sonitpur district.

Among those arrested were nine women.

India arrests 16 for beheading woman for 'witchcraft'

_____

A 63-year-old Indian woman has been dismembered and beheaded by machete-wielding villagers who accused her of practising witchcraft.

Seven people have been arrested over the death of PMoni Orang, a mother of five who was seized from her home in the northeastern state of Assam on Monday after local priests said she was casting spells.

'The attackers armed with machetes and other crude implements descended on the village and took away Moni Orang from her house and then brutally killed her,' senior police official Manabendra Dev Roy told AFP.

'She was decapitated and her limbs were chopped off.'

On Tuesday villagers stormed the local police station to protest against the arrests.

'Moni was a witch and had cast evil spells on her enemies,' said villager Kiran Teronpi on local television.

'There is no place for such sorcerers and so her killing is justified.'

Assam, India woman dismembered and beheaded by villagers for 'witchcraft' | Daily Mail Online

The Freethinker - The voice of atheism since 1881 » Witchcraft crime on the rise in the UK

A BBC investigation into faith-based crime, broadcast yesterday on Radio 5, claimed that a special Metropolitan Police team – Operation Violet – has seen a significant increase in reports of crimes related to witchcraft in London.

But other areas don’t have such specialist expertise and half of police forces in the UK are failing to record cases. Campaigners say children remain at risk in the absence of a coordinated national response to the problem.

The BBC reported here that the Metropolitan Police said there had been 60 crimes linked to faith in London so far this year. It saw reports double from 23 in 2013 to 46 in 2014.

The NSPCC said authorities:

Need to ensure they are able to spot the signs of this particular brand of abuse.

Terry Sharpe, from the Project Violet team, said cases remained small in number, but there had been a significant increase, covering a spectrum of seriousness.

The Freethinker - The voice of atheism since 1881 » Witchcraft crime on the rise in the UK

African Witchcraft Victims Treated After Limbs Were Cut Off | NBC 10 Philadelphia

Kabula Nkarango Masanja returned home to Tanzania with a new American prosthetic arm replacing the limb that was chopped off with a machete by followers of African witchcraft.

She's one of Tanzania's children with albinism, a condition that leaves people with little or no pigment in their skin, hair or eyes. Their severed body parts are used in potions witch doctors believe bring wealth and good luck. The soft-spoken 17-year-old Kabula is now one of the lucky ones.

Doctors at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Philadelphia recently created new artificial limbs for Kabula and four other youngsters. And New York City resident Elissa Montanti provided housing about two hours away in the borough of Staten Island and organized all their daily, medical and travel needs.

,,,

Lacking natural pigmentation, people with albinism look almost white - ghosts of departed humans, according to witch doctors who order body parts to be hacked off: hair, nails, teeth, tongues, hands, feet, even genitals. More than 200 witch doctors have been arrested so far in the killings of Tanzanians with albinism. The government outlawed witch doctors last year.

Still, attacks continue; at least eight were recorded in Tanzania in the past year.

There's another, even more cruel twist.

Some parents are collaborators because "they still believe their children are cursed," says Ester Rwela, a social worker who accompanies the children and translates their Swahili language.

African Witchcraft Victims Treated After Limbs Were Cut Off | NBC 10 Philadelphia

Police drive against witchcraft killings - The Times of India

 Wouldn't a better solution be protecting the rights of people to have their own beliefs?

The awareness drive assumes significance as Ganjam is one of the districts in which sorcery is widely prevalent. Ostracizing and killing people, especially old men and women, for allegedly practising witchcraft remains a socio-economic problem in the district, the campaigners said.

A senior police officer said at least one such case is reported every week in the district. A 50-year-old man was beaten to death by some villagers at Dhepaguda, a predominantly tribal village under Patapur police limits, recently.

Ignorance, illiteracy, ill health and a strong belief in the witchcraft are some of the reasons for the wide practice of such superstition in rural areas, said E T Rao, vice president, Federation of Indian Rationalist Association, fighting against blind belief. He said such cases are mostly reported from tribal-dominated areas.

Police drive against witchcraft killings - The Times of India

Witch doctors targeting vulnerable Kiwis | NZNews | 3 News

Being that it is 2015 and all, it is sad to see that my "tag" category "witchcraft" is becoming quite full of stories.  Although this story is more akin to what we in the States would refer to as psychic fraud.

Indian witch doctors are arriving in New Zealand on tourist or temporary work visas and duping vulnerable Kiwis into forking out thousands of dollars. 

One Auckland man has lost almost $12,000, and after being alerted by 3 News, Immigration New Zealand says it's investigating.

Indian Community Leader Pratima Nand is on a crusade against what she calls "witch doctors". She's gone undercover with 3 News and says they're using New Zealand as a test market.

"They are destroying families, they are sucking people in. A friend of mine has been sucked up to $1400 with no results. Somebody has to take action," she says.

Witchcraft practitioners in south Auckland are not hard to find. In one newspaper alone there were three ads, all offering 100 percent lifelong protection from black magic, money problems and marriage problems.

Witch doctors targeting vulnerable Kiwis | NZNews | 3 News

Odisha: Six of a family, including 3-yr-old, hacked to death over witchcraft allegations | The Indian Express

A tribal labourer, his wife and four children — the youngest a three-year-old girl — were hacked to death here Sunday night, allegedly by fellow villagers, on suspicion of practising witchcraft. The attackers reportedly used a sharp weapon and an axe for the crime.

Gura Munda (40), who worked as a labourer in the nearby iron ore mines, his wife and six children— residents of Mundasahi village, atop the Lahanda hill, in Joda block of Keonjhar district — had gone to bed when they were attacked.

Shortly after midnight, at least five persons reportedly stormed into Gura’s home and stabbed him, his wife Budhini Munda, and six children — sons Sunil (16), Ganita (18), Kushanath (10), Sambhunath (9) and daughters Sambhari (12) and Namita (3). Only Ganita and Sambhunath survived.

“Last Tuesday, some villagers had a meeting in which they accused Munda of practising witchcraft. The children of few villagers were not keeping well for some time and they suspected Munda to be behind it. People here are mostly illiterate and would believe anything they are told,” said Ajay Pratap Swain, sub-divisional police officer, who is investigating the case.
,,,
Incidentally, this is the fourth case of witchhunting in Keonjhar in the last one year. Despite a series of awareness meetings, five tribals have been murdered in the district.

Odisha: Six of a family, including 3-yr-old, hacked to death over witchcraft allegations | The Indian Express

Man burnt alive for ‘witchcraft’ in Orissa | The Asian Age

In a spine-chilling act of inhumanity, a group of irate villagers of Dhepaguda village, under Sanakhemundi block in Orissa’s Ganjam district, nearly 250 km from here, allegedly burnt a fellow villager alive on Tuesday night suspecting him of practising witchcraft, the police said on Wednesday.

“The villagers allegedly set afire one Prakash Mallick (45) suspecting him of practising sorcery. We have arrested one of the accused and his associate while the hunt is on for another accused,” inspector Ajaya Barik of Patrapur police station said.
,,,
“They suspected that Prakash was also responsible for the death of their paternal uncle Japani Mallick six months ago and their father Krushna Mallick a year ago. The two brothers — Nilanchal Mallick and Tuna Mallick — went to Prakash’s house and severely thrashed him with a bamboo stick. As Prakash became unconscious, they took him to the village cremation ground and threw him on the pyre of their brother,” Mr Barik, quoting the written complaint lodged by the victim’s son Nabin Mallick, said.

Man burnt alive for ‘witchcraft’ in Orissa | The Asian Age

Islamic State beheads first women civilians - Telegraph

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant jihadists have beheaded two women in Syria for sorcery, an extension of the punishment which is normally reserved for men.

The women and their husbands were all accused of witchcraft, one couple in the town of Mayadeen, in eastern Deir Ezzour province, and one in Deir Ezzour city, according to the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, which monitors the conflict.

Five people in all in Mayadeen were beheaded, the others on charges of “banditry” and “drugs”, with two of the men then crucified.

The case marks the first time a woman civilian is recorded as having been beheaded, though the punishment has been inflicted on women soldiers from the Kurdish militia, the YPJ, the female version of the YPG.

Islamic State beheads first women civilians - Telegraph

Girl Burned to Death in Nigeria after Witchcraft Allegation

Police in Nigeria say a 60-year-old man burned a young girl to death after accusing her of being a witch. Allegations of witchcraft in Nigeria can be very dangerous.

Police say they’ve arrested 60-year-old Yakubu Vong for luring an eight-year-old girl to his house in the village of Sabon Layi in north-central Plateau State, dousing her with lamp oil, and setting her ablaze.

Plateau State police spokesman Emmanuel Abuh says police believe he attacked the girl because she refused to admit to him that she was a witch.

While much of public religious life centers around Christianity and Islam, traditional beliefs are still prevalent in Nigeria.

Ishaya Bajama is a civil rights activist who works in Plateau State. He says spiritual healers often use allegations of witchcraft to explain mental or physical illnesses that communities might not be familiar with, or might not have the money or ability to treat.

“A lot of things that people don’t have solution for, they are always ascribed to spiritual problems. But a lot of it has to do with social sickness or social misfit," said Bajama.

Girl Burned to Death in Nigeria after Witchcraft Allegation

Busted: Gang that used voodoo to exploit women - The Local

As with a previous article out of the UK, concerning Lizzy Idahosa and her use of a Juju ceremony associated with Voodoo, it seems that Nigerian women in Spain have also fallen victim to the cruel technique of controlling women and children through fear.

Officers rescued four victims and arrested six members of the organization that used juju voodoo rituals to sexually exploit women, according to a police report.

Traffickers reportedly promised the women from Nigerian jobs in Spain, only to force them into prostitution once they brought them to places such as Lanzarote in the Canary Islands and Palma de Mallorca in the Balearics.

The traffickers had put the women through a juju voodoo ritual that used the victims' finger nails or public hair and involved animal sacrifice in front of idols in a temple in order to "guarantee that the women complied with everything they demanded, under threat of death to them and their families".

What is disconcerting, this practice is also occurring in places like Italy as well as the UK Man ‘used witchcraft to traffic children’ for prostitution.

Busted: Gang that used voodoo to exploit women - The Local

Vanuatu MP Willie Jimmy proposes death penalty for witchcraft - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Vanuatu MP and former finance minister Willie Jimmy is calling for witchcraft to be made a crime punishable by death.

The comment follows an incident last week on an island near Malekula in which a community, allegedly including chiefs and church pastors, hanged two men for suspected sorcery.

Police are treating the men's deaths as homicide.

Mr Jimmy said having the law framed this way puts those who "innocently" kill accused witches at risk of punishment.
,,,
"Even to the extreme that there could be some death penalty, some capital punishment against those who practice [witchcraft], I will not hesitate having agreed to that type of law passed by parliament."
,,,
"As an indigenous Melanesian person, I do believe very strongly that witchcraft does exist among the Melanesian people, they do practice this witchcraft," he said.

"We try to combat those who practice it but the problem is the law does not recognise that, because civil and criminal procedures require we have proof or evidence beyond all reasonable doubt before we can punish anybody, that makes it very, very difficult.

"It does take place in Melanesia, it does. If you think it does not then the people, those who practice that, they will be happy ... that we don't see the problems they are causing the community, that they will stay free all the time."




Vanuatu MP Willie Jimmy proposes death penalty for witchcraft - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

UPDATE::BBC News - 'Juju' sex trafficker Lizzy Idahosa jailed for eight years

As he sentenced Idahosa, Judge Tom Crowther QC told her: "You were the prime mover in this scheme.

"You targeted vulnerable young women and kept them in a kind of hell.

"You forced them to pay an arbitrary debt with their bodies day in day out. And you made significant sums from them."

He added: "They lived under mortal terror of breaking these promises."

In total, Idahosa was given sentences of eight years, five years, seven years and two and a half years for her crimes - all to run concurrently.

Omoruyi was sentenced to two years and 18 months, also to run concurrently.

Judge Crowther said both defendants will serve half their jail sentences.

BBC News - 'Juju' sex trafficker Lizzy Idahosa jailed for eight years

Stillwater man killed in near-beheading; murder charge filed | News OK

Y'all remember this story and the ensuing rage that followed? I'm wondering where that rage went in light of this most recent religiously motivated killing. Where are the articles citing the Quran,,,err Bible as evidence that this murder was a result of perps religious beliefs?

Oh wait he's Christian, I get it now,,,duh!!

At a news conference earlier in the day, Stillwater police Capt. Randy Dickerson said Marin admitted to authorities “that he had fantasized recently about committing multiple homicides” and that the victim was “one of his intended targets.”

“The conversation was that he had planned to to do it all at one time,” the police captain said.

The victim’s brother, Jesse Crockett, told police Marin is a “religious zealot” and “heavy drug user,” according to a court affidavit.

Police confirmed there was evidence at the scene that Marin might have been involved in the use of some illegal drugs.

The defendant’s brother, Samuel Marin, said “in the past Jacob and Isaiah had disagreements because Jacob and Jesse were practicing witchcraft and Isaiah had strong Christian beliefs,” a Stillwater police officer reported in the affidavit…

From KFOR News

The report says Samuel stated Isaiah had been watching YouTube videos related to his Christian beliefs.

During the card game, the affidavit claims Isaiah picked up a large black sword and began swinging it.

Samuel stated he heard a noise “described as the sound of someone getting stabbed. He stated he looked up and saw Jacob stand up and blood gushing from his chest.”

Samuel told police that Isaiah was still holding the knife.

At that point, the witness says he ran from the apartment.

He says Isaiah followed him, trying to calm him down and “would explain why he killed Jacob from letters he would write while he was in prison.”

Stillwater man killed in near-beheading; murder charge filed | News OK