LUSAKA – A court in Zambia on Monday sentenced two men to two years in prison with hard labor for attempting to use witchcraft to kill the country’s president.
Mozambican national Jasten Mabulesse Candunde and Zambian village chief Leonard Phiri were arrested in December in possession of charms, including a live chameleon.
Police said they planned to use the charms to harm President Hakainde Hichilema and they were charged with professing knowledge of witchcraft and possession of charms.
“The motive of the crime was to kill the head of state,” magistrate Fine Mayambu ruled in the capital Lusaka on Monday.
“The convicts were not only enemies of the head of state but all Zambians. I therefore sentence them to 24 months imprisonment with hard labour from the date of their arrest,” he said.
The prosecution said the men had been hired by the brother of opposition MP Emmanuel “Jay Jay” Banda, who is facing trial for robbery, attempted murder and escaping custody.
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.
