PNG magistrate stoned to death for car crash

PORT MORESBY, Oct 22 (Reuters) A court magistrate in Papua New Guinea in the South Pacific was stoned to death after his car crashed into a refugee camp in the capital Port Moresby, local media reported today.

The Post Courier newspaper said senior magistrate Ivo Cappo was killed on Saturday night when he lost control of his car as he drove home from a hotel, and ran into the camp on Ela Beach.

None of the refugees were injured, but when Cappo got out of his car to inspect the crash, the refugees from the western part of New Guinea, which is under Indonesian rule, rushed him and stoned him to death, said the newspaper.

''But whether it was wilful or manslaughter is yet to be established,'' police chief Fed Yakasa told The National newspaper.

Payback is a traditional custom in Papua New Guinea, a nation where tribal wars and black magic are common, and most people live subsistence lives in jungle-clad mountain villages.

REUTERS SS AS0812