Eighty mainly elderly people recently jailed in Malawi for up to six years for practicing witchcraft should be freed, campaigners say

George Thindwa from the Association of Secular Humanism said the convictions were illegal as there was no law against witchcraft. He said the problem was that many officials were "witchcraft believers". The justice minister disputed the allegations, saying the justice system was "reputable". The widespread belief in witchcraft led the government to set up a committee to consider criminalizing it. Under the law as it stands, it is illegal to accuse someone of being a witch. The public prosecutions office said that there had been 11 cases brought under the witchcraft act recently across the country. According to their records, this led to the conviction of 61 elderly women, seven elderly men and 18 younger relatives of the other accused. They received sentences of between four and six years in prison for practicing witchcraft. Justice Minister George Chaponda said that a person could only be found guilty of practicing witchcraft if they confessed to being a witch. But the records showed that all the suspects had pleaded not guilty. Most of those recently sentenced were women usually accused by children of teaching them witchcraft.