Mbabane - The small southern Africa kingdom of Swaziland has resumed its search for a hangman after six churchgoers were sentenced to death this week, according to a press report on Sunday.
High Court Judge Stanley Maphalala on Wednesday sentenced six members of the Red Gown Zionist religious sect to hang, prompting a new search for an executioner by the Swazi authorities, the Sunday World newspaper said.
The six, five men and a woman aged between 26 and 34, were found guilty of butchering a priest from another church and his wife in March 1997, after accusing the couple of bewitching them, the Johannesburg paper said.
The judge sentenced the six to death for murdering the priest's wife but gave them life sentences for the murder of the priest, because their belief that he had bewitched them acted as an extenuating circumstance.
The last execution in Swaziland was in 1983 when high-profile businesswoman Phillipa Mdluli was hanged for the ritual murder of her domestic worker's son.
In 1998, the kingdom, which is sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique, began a hunt for a hangman after the courts started handing down death sentences after a 15-year break.
It was forced to advertise the vacancy outside the country after no local citizens could be convinced to replace the previous hangman, who deserted his post more than 13 years ago.
More than 200 people, mostly South Africans but also from Canada, Britain and Japan, applied for the job, but the government decided there was not enough work for a full-time executioner and decided to appoint a freelancer instead.
The matter fizzled out after no suitable candidate was found, but this week's judgment has forced the authorities to resume the search, the report said. - Sapa-AFP