Four albino killers sentenced to death

In Tanzania on November 2, 2009, the high court sentenced four men to death by hanging for killing a 50-year-old albino man. The man's death was one of a spate of attacks on Tanzania's estimated 200,000 albinos in the past two years. The attacks have occurred in the remote north-west near Lake Victoria.

Superstitions are said to have led to the attacks. Albinos, who lack pigment in their skin, eyes and hair, have pallid features and pink irises. Local witch-doctors believe that albinos bring luck in life and business. This has caused the spate of attacks, where people kill their victims and harvest their blood and body parts - hair, genitals and limbs - for potions.

A Canadian human rights advocacy group urged the government for a swift decision and for justice for the deaths, as well as an education campaign to put an end to the killings.

To date, there have been seven convictions leading to sentencing for murdering albinos.

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