A Malawi court today refused to grant bail to an HIV-positive man, facing charges of having sex with more than 100 under-age girls as part of initiation rites into womanhood.
Eric Aniva, 45, was arrested last month, after he confessed that families paid him between four and seven dollars to have sexual intercourse with their children, in a traditional custom meant to prepare them to become good wives.
Magistrate Anderson Masanjala refused him bail saying “it is wise for Aniva to remain on remand so that police can finish their investigation.”
The man appeared before a cramped courtroom without a lawyer, because he could not afford one. He could be jailed for life if found guilty of underage sex.
Aniva, who is from Malawi’s southern district of Nsanje, is one of the men known as “hyenas” – men paid to have sex with young girls after their first menstruation. He is said to have slept with more than100 females, some as young as 12-years-old. The ritual lasts three days.
Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika ordered his arrest last month, after he admitted to the act during a television interview. Aniva, who has two wives, said he had also performed the so-called sexual cleansing act on widows and that he did not use protection, despite being infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. He said that custom did not allow him to use condoms.
It is generally believed in that part of Malawi that failure to perform the ritual could lead to bad fortune for the families and the entire village. Aniva’s trial resumes on August 15.
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