Two men in Zambia have been handed two-year prison sentences with hard labour after being found guilty of plotting to assassinate the country’s president through witchcraft.
The Zambian and Mozambican nationals were convicted last week under a colonial-era witchcraft statute. A court determined they possessed various charms, including a live chameleon, an animal tail, and a dozen bottles of concoctions. These items were reportedly intended to cast a fatal spell on President Hakainde Hichilema.
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% of Zambians believed in witchcraft.
The belief in witchcraft also is prevalent in many other African countries.
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