A Zambian court has handed down two-year prison terms to two men found guilty of attempting to use witchcraft to assassinate President Hakainde Hichilema.
The accused, Zambian national Leonard Phiri and Mozambican citizen Jasten Mabulesse Candunde, were convicted under the Witchcraft Act after their December arrest. Authorities seized charms from the duo, including a live chameleon, which prosecutors said was central to their plot.
In delivering judgment, Magistrate Fine Mayambu declared: “The convicts were not only a threat to the Head of State but also to the entire nation of Zambia.”
The trial, closely followed across the country, marked the first time individuals had been prosecuted for attempting to target a sitting president through witchcraft. Prosecutors alleged that the two men were hired by a former legislator, currently on the run, to perform the rituals against Hichilema.
Although Phiri and Candunde maintained that they were practicing traditional healers, the court found them guilty on two counts. They admitted to owning the charms, with Phiri even demonstrating how the chameleon’s tail could allegedly be used in a fatal ritual expected to claim a life within five days.
Defense lawyer Agrippa Malando pleaded for leniency, arguing that his clients were first-time offenders and should be fined instead. The court, however, rejected the request.
Magistrate Mayambu stressed that although witchcraft is unproven, many in Zambia and across Africa believe in it, and the law exists to shield the public from fear and potential harm. “The issue is not whether the accused possessed supernatural powers, but whether they claimed to, and the evidence confirms they did,” he said.
The men were also sentenced to an additional six months for possession of charms, but since the sentences will run concurrently, they will serve two years from the date of their arrest in December 2024.
President Hichilema, who has previously dismissed witchcraft as superstition, has not commented on the case.
Legal expert Dickson Jere explained to the BBC that Zambia’s Witchcraft Act dates back to 1914, during colonial rule. He noted that prosecutions under the law are rare, but the legislation has historically been used to protect vulnerable people, such as elderly women, from mob violence after accusations of sorcery.
Witchcraft has also surfaced in political debates recently, particularly surrounding the dispute over the burial of former President Edgar Lungu.
Some have speculated that the government’s insistence on having Lungu interred in Zambia, against his family’s wishes, is linked to “occult” motives—a claim the authorities strongly deny. Lungu died in South Africa in June, and his remains are still in a morgue there as disagreements over his final resting place continue.
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Source – NewZimbabwe.com
