HIV Man Slept With More Than 100 Women Sentenced To Jail With Hard Labour (Photos)

An HIV-positive Malawian man who said he slept with at least 100 girls and women in traditional cleansing rituals has been sentenced to two years in jail and hard labour after being convicted of 'engaging in harmful practices'.

Malawi's President Peter Mutharika had ordered the arrest of Eric Aniva, a sex worker known locally as a "hyena", after he admitted in a BBC interview to having sex with more than 100 women and underage girls and not disclosing his HIV status.

His lawyer, Michael Goba Chipeta, said Aniva would appeal against the conviction and the sentence. 

The practice of "widow cleansing", when a widow must have sex after her husband dies, was outlawed a few years ago. 

Aniva was the subject of a BBC feature into various sexual cleansing practices in Malawi.

The president had wanted him tried for defiling young girls, but none came forward to testify against him.

Instead Aniva was tried for "harmful cultural practice" under section five of Malawi's Gender Equality Act for having sex with new widows.

The ritual, which many Malawians say is rarely practised today, is believed to train girls to become good wives and protect them from disease or misfortune that could fall on their families.

'Some girls are just 12 or 13 years old, but I prefer them older,' Aniva told the BBC. 'All these girls find pleasure in having me as their hyena. They actually are proud and tell other people that this man is a real man, he knows how to please a woman.'