rights group Amnesty International called...

rights group Amnesty International called on Indonesia not to execute a man who murdered 42 women in "black magic" rituals. Self-proclaimed shaman Ahmad Suraji was sentenced to death in 1998 after police found the women's bodies buried in a sugar cane field. He confessed to strangling most of the women and drinking their saliva to improve his magical powers after they came to him for help. Amnesty said it recognised the need to address serious crime, but was "convinced that the death penalty does not provide a solution." "(We are) calling for the planned execution of Achmad Suradji to be halted immediately and for his sentence to be commuted," it said in a statement.