Members of the Mbya Guarani indigenous community cited sorcery as the reason why Adolfina Ocampos was tied to a stake, shot full of arrows and burned alive.
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Nine men from the village of Tahehyi, which is located a 180 miles north of Paraguay's capital Asuncion, were charged with first degree murder after admitting to the crime.
Even in this day and age, thousands of people, worldwide, are accused of being witches every year leading them to be abused, cast out or, as in this case, even killed, the UN Refugee Agency has said.
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However others have claimed that Ocampos' story is an 'out of the ordinary' and 'isolated' event.
"I've been working in Paraguay for 40 years and I can't remember a similar episode of an execution for alleged sorcery," Italian anthropologist and Catholic priest, Jose Zanardini spoke up.
"The tragic death of this woman is isolated and out of the ordinary within the co-existence of Paraguay's 20 ethnic indigenous groups. In general, the Indians are very peaceful and tolerant.'
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Meanwhile, the state agency for the protection of indigenous peoples issued a statement on Wednesday with the criticism that 'although the indigenous communities are ruled by customary law, their acts cannot violate the constitutional rights of respecting the life and the liberty of people'.