Prosecutor: Woman burned alive for witchcraft in Peru jungle

LIMA, Peru – Authorities in Peru say a woman accused of being a witch was burned alive on a bonfire in an indigenous community in a remote part of the country's Amazon rainforest.

Prosecutor Hugo Mauricio says members of the Shiringamazu Alto community sentenced 73-year-old Rosa Villar Jarionca to death over claims she made people sick through witchcraft. The alleged burning took place Sept. 20, but the area is so remote that word of it did not reach authorities until recently.

Mauricio says a cellphone video shot by a witness and given to prosecutors appears to show Villar with her hands tied amid a pile of dry logs and branches. A man bathes the logs and the woman with gasoline and another man throws a lit match onto the bonfire.