Two men sentenced to prison in Zambia for plotting to kill the president with witchcraft

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema listens during the closing session of the New Global Financial Pact Summit, June 23, 2023 in Paris. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, Pool, File)

LUSAKA, Zambia — A judge in Zambia on Monday sentenced two men to two-year terms in prison with hard labour after they were convicted of plotting to kill the president using witchcraft.

The men, a Zambian and a Mozambican national, were convicted under a colonial-era witchcraft law last week.

The court found that they had been in possession of charms, including a live chameleon, an animal tail and 12 bottles of concoctions and had intended to use them to put a spell on President Hakainde Hichilema with the intention of killing him.

Leonard Phiri, 43, and Jasten Candunde, 42, pleaded for leniency from the magistrate who sentenced them.

Zambia’s witchcraft law, passed in 1914, defines practicing witchcraft as pretending to exercise any kind of supernatural power, sorcery, or enchantment intended to cause fear, annoyance, or injury. The maximum sentence is three years in prison.

The trial also had a heavy dose of political intrigue, with prosecutors alleging the two men were hired by a brother of a former lawmaker to curse Hichilema.

Police said the men were arrested in a hotel room in the capital, Lusaka, last year after a cleaner reported hearing strange noises. They were found with a chameleon in a bottle and the other items.

Many traditional beliefs have survived in Zambia alongside its official Christian religion. A 2018 study by the Zambia Law Development Commission found that 79 per cent of Zambians believed in witchcraft.

The belief in witchcraft also is prevalent in many other African countries.

The Associated Press