A Zambian court has sentenced two men to two years in prison for attempting to use witchcraft to harm President Hakainde Hichilema.

The convicts, Leonard Phiri, a Zambian, and Jasten Mabulesse Candunde, a Mozambican, were arrested in December 2024 and charged under Zambia’s Witchcraft Act of 1914. Police said the pair, believed to be practising witchdoctors, were caught with various charms — including a live chameleon.

During the trial, prosecutors alleged the men had been hired by a fugitive former lawmaker to target President Hichilema. In court, it was revealed that Phiri even demonstrated how pricking the tail of the chameleon and using it in a ritual could allegedly cause death within five days.

Delivering judgment, Judge Fine Mayambu said the evidence proved their intent and described them as “enemies of all Zambians.” He added:

“The question is not whether the accused are wizards or actually possess supernatural powers. It is whether they represented themselves as such, and the evidence clearly shows they did.”

The men were sentenced to two years for professing witchcraft and six months for possessing charms. However, the sentences will run concurrently, meaning they will serve two years in total, backdated to their arrest in December 2024.

Their lawyer, Agrippa Malando, pleaded for leniency, arguing they were first-time offenders who could be fined instead of jailed, but the request was rejected.

Legal analyst Dickson Jere noted that such prosecutions are rare. The Witchcraft Act, he explained, was originally intended to prevent mob violence against people accused of sorcery, particularly vulnerable groups like elderly women.

The case, which has attracted wide public interest, is the first in Zambia involving an alleged attempt to use witchcraft against a sitting president.