Witchdoctors, 'mudmen' warriors and skeleton men are common in superstitious Papua New Guinea.
Port Moresby - A Papua New Guinean judge has jailed a man for 50 years over a "ferocious and merciless" sorcery killing.
National Court judge Nicholas Kirriwom imposed the sentence on 29-year-old Wilson Okore at Lae in Morobe Province, on PNG's northwest coast.
Okore and an accomplice, who
is still at large, killed Jerry Kaiulo, a National Forest Service officer, while he was showering in February 2006 after a female colleague accused Kaiulo of practising sorcery.
Judge Kirriwom told the court Okore had said to police he thought it was alright for people to kill each other, PNG's National newspaper reported.
"I cannot accept his (Okore's) lack of appreciation for the sanctity of human life," said the judge.
"Killings associated with suspicions of sorcery have escalated rapidly in recent times where vigilantes take the law into their own hands," he said.
"The courts cannot sit by and allow these summary executions to continue - where police are failing to clamp down - by imposing very lenient sentences," he said.
On the weekend a father and son were attacked for alleged sorcery in the Highlands region of Mt Hagen.
The son was hacked to death, the father suffered severe injuries and their house was burnt to the ground.
PNG's authorities are attempting to crack down on sorcery-related crime after a spate of brutal killings.
Highlands police say there were at least 50 sorcery-related killings last year.
- AAP
