Two rapists speared to death after guilty verdicts

Two rapists have been speared to death on the orders of a traditional court in north-eastern Uganda.

The Monitor newspaper says the executions were carried out at Kabong village in the remote Karamoja region.

A clan tribunal convicted one man of raping a married woman and another of raping a 15-year-old girl.

Peter Lomuria was convicted of the first rape, while Geoffrey Lomilia was speared to death for violating a 15-year-old girl, the newspaper says.

Clan elders have defended the sentences, the paper adds.

It quotes the clan court's chairman, Ekathikout Apa Gulgul, as saying: "In Karamojong tradition, all girls must be virgins until they get married and those who defile them or cheat in their marriages must face death."