An ATHEIST group in Malawi has said it will ask the country’s president to release dozens of women jailed on allegations of practising witchcraft.

The Association of Secular Humanism wants President Bingu wa Mutharika to order the immediate release of 80 women, many of them elderly, sentenced to up to six years imprisonment with hard labour. Most of them were accused of teaching witchcraft to children.

Witchcraft is not currently a crime under Malawian law, however, the government has set up a committee to investigate criminalising the practice.

Recently, Mr Mutharika pardoned Malawi’s first openly gay couple after previously sentencing them to 14 years’ imprisonment.

Original article: http://news.scotsman.com/news/39Free-those-jailed-for-witchcraft39.6578427.jp