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(AP)  BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) - An atheist group in Malawi says it will ask the president to release dozens of women jailed on allegations of practicing witchcraft.

The Association of Secular Humanism wants President Bingu wa Mutharika to order the immediate release of 80 women, many of them elderly, sentenced to up to six years imprisonment with hard labor. Most of the women were accused of teaching witchcraft to children in the southern African country.

ASH spokesman George Thindwa says the women are innocent.

Witchcraft is not a crime under Malawian law. But the government has set up a committee to investigate criminalizing the practice.

Recently Mutharika pardoned Malawi's first openly gay couple after sentencing them to 14 years' imprisonment.

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