Indonesia Executes ´Shaman´ for Killing 42 Women

Over 10 years, police said he strangled the victims aged 11 to 30 and drank their saliva in a bid to enhance his powers.

Indonesia has executed a man who strangled 42 women and girls, and then drank their saliva, a spokesman for the Attorney General said on Friday.

The serial killer, Ahmad Suradji, was sentenced to death by a court in 1997 after he was convicted of killing the women and girls on the island of Sumatra. An appeal to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for clemency was turned down late last year.

"He pretended to be a shaman who could heal any kind of disease. If someone asked to be healed, both their possessions and their lives were taken," Bonaventura Daulat Nainggolan, the Attorney General's spokesman, said.

Suradji told police that he started to kill the women, who were buried near his home, in 1986 after his late father ordered him in a dream to kill 70 women.

Over 10 years, police said he strangled the victims aged 11 to 30 and drank their saliva in a bid to enhance his powers. A belief in mysticism and supernatural powers is common among many Indonesians.

His execution by firing squad took place at a plantation in Deli Serdang in North Sumatra.