Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Nigerian juju (trafficking) Juju and oath systems Nkungulu, Mangochi, Malawi · 2022

Malawi: traditional healer sentenced to ten years for raping and impregnating a client under his care for a mental-health condition

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

traditional healer

Organization

No organization assigned

Spiritual nexus

The victim was placed under Vasco's care specifically as a patient seeking treatment for a mental-health crisis, and remained under his ongoing authority as her healer for four months. He used that treatment relationship, and her family's inability to immediately pay, to relocate and further entrap her — the healer relationship is what created and then extended his control over her.

  • Spiritual healing or treatment

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2022-07-25 · trial and sentencing

    Mangochi Senior Resident Magistrate's Court (Nkungulu), Malawi. Chiko Vasco, 70, a well-known traditional healer, was convicted of raping and impregnating a 30-year-old client and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment with hard labour. Senior Resident Magistrate Rodrick Michongwe rejected mitigation, finding Vasco had taken advantage of the victim's vulnerability.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • four-month ongoing treatment relationship with a mentally vulnerable patient
  • relocation of the victim away from her family to enforce continued control
  • declaration of the victim as his 'second wife' to entrench the relationship

Primary record

Sources

national press sentencing report Face of Malawi, 'Herbalist Slapped 10Yrs For Raping, Impregnating Female Client In Mangochi' (26 July 2022).

Reports that the Mangochi Senior Resident Magistrate's Court at Nkungulu convicted and sentenced Chiko Vasco, 70, a well-known traditional healer, to 10 years' imprisonment with hard labour for raping and impregnating a 30-year-old client. States the victim developed a mental disorder after a miscarriage in October 2021 and was taken to Vasco for treatment, remaining under his care for four months; when her parents could not immediately pay his K80,000 fee in full, he moved her to another location and declared her his 'second wife'; the assaults and pregnancy were discovered when her parents finally retrieved her in July 2022.

national press sentencing report Malawi Heat, 'Mangochi Herbalist Jailed 10 Years For Rape' (2022).

Confirms the identity of Chiko Vasco, the Mangochi Senior Resident Magistrate's Court sentencing, the 10-year term, and the treatment-relationship facts consistent with the Face of Malawi report.

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