A Zambian court on Monday jailed two men for two years for attempting to use witchcraft to kill President Hakainde Hichilema, convicting them under the country’s colonial-era Witchcraft Act after police found charms including a live chameleon during their December 2024 arrest.
Magistrate Fine Mayambu said Zambian national Leonard Phiri and Mozambican Jasten Mabulesse Candunde “represented themselves” as capable of harming the head of state through supernatural means, adding that the law protects society from fear and harm even where such powers are not scientifically proven. The court imposed a concurrent two-year term for “professing” witchcraft and six months for possessing charms, meaning they will serve two years in total from their arrest date. Some local outlets reported the sentence includes hard labour.
The case, closely followed in Zambia, is believed to be the first trial centered on an alleged plot to bewitch a sitting president. The men said they were traditional healers, but prosecutors alleged they had been recruited by associates of a fugitive former MP; police earlier linked the duo to an intermediary tied to opposition lawmaker Jay “JJ” Banda, who escaped custody in 2024.
Zambia’s Witchcraft Act, first enacted in 1914 and amended several times, criminalizes “professing knowledge” of witchcraft and pretending to exercise supernatural powers that could cause fear, annoyance or injury. Rights advocates and legal scholars say prosecutions are rare but the statute endures as a public-order measure.
Hichilema, who has previously said he does not believe in witchcraft, has not commented on the verdict. Defense lawyer Agrippa Malando asked for a fine, citing the men as first-time offenders; the court rejected the plea.