Swaziland police: 3 traditional healers charged with desecrating graves for healing rituals

Swaziland healers charged for skull-and-bone theft

MBABANE, Swaziland — Police in Swaziland say they have arrested three traditional healers for allegedly desecrating graves to retrieve human skulls and bones for healing rituals.

Police official Wendy Hleta said Thursday the three — who might be described in the West as witchdoctors — claimed a healer from neighboring Mozambique offered to make them “instant millionaires” if they dug up human bones.

Police found a skull on the property of one of the suspects who then identified a remote grave that had been opened.

Hleta said the healers were arrested Thursday and charged with violating grave sites in this tiny mountainous southern African kingdom.

Last month a Swazi court fined two traditional healers for using body parts of protected animals.