Two men were jailed for two years in Zambia on Monday after they were found guilty of attempting to use witchcraft to kill President Hakainde Hichilema (HH).
They were convicted under Zambia’s colonial-era Witchcraft Act. Their trial and subsequent conviction came after police found charms including a live chameleon during their December 2024 arrest.
On Monday, September 15, 2025, Magistrate Fine Mayambu, noted that a Zambian national, Leonard Phiri and a Mozambican, Jasten Mabulesse Candunde “represented themselves” as capable of harming the head of state through supernatural means.
The Magistrate added that the law protects society from fear and harm even where such powers are not scientifically proven.
Consequently, 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.
According to local media outlets, the two men were sentenced with 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.
Source:Africa Publicity