Libyan police arrest three Chadians for witchcraft

Libyan police in Benghazi have arrested three men from Chad for practicing witchcraft, several Libyan news websites reported on Tuesday.

The arrests were made on Monday after a Chadian woman complained to officers at Benghazi's Ras Ubayda police station that spells cast by one of the men were ineffective.

The arrested man had promised the woman that that her former husband would return to her through the power of his magic.

Police set a trap for the self-styled magician by giving the woman who made the complaint a collection of marked bills to pay the magic practitioner with, according to the Libyan news site Al-Wasat.

They then stormed his house in the Ruwaisat area of Benghazi, where they found the two other men, as well as papers with hieroglyphs drawn on them, verses from the Quran, women's clothing, and other items allegedly used for witchcraft.

Al-Wasat reported that three men were detained and confessed to practicing witchcraft.

The Facebook page of the Benghazi Security Directorate also said that an Egyptian man had been arrested for witchcraft on Tuesday.

Benghazi has been under the control of forces loyal to rogue Libyan General Khalifa Haftar since late 2017.

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