Zambia: two men sentenced for attempting to kill president with witchcraft

A court in Lusaka has sentenced two men to two years in prison with hard labour for attempting to kill the country's president Hakainde Hichilema with witchcraft.

It's a first in Zambia: two men were convicted on Monday of attempting to use witchcraft to kill president Hichilema, with a court sentencing them to two years in prison, the first time that anyone has been put on trial for a witchcraft assassination attempt against the president in the country.

Leonard Phiri from Zambia and Jasten Mabulesse Candunde, a citizen of Mozambique, were arrested last December after a cleaner reported hearing strange noises in a room.

The two men were found in possession of a live chameleon, an unidentified white powder, a red cloth and an animal's tail, all of which they reportedly planned on using in a ritual that would cause death "within five days" as explained by Phiri, according to a magistrate.

The court convicted both men under the Witchcraft Act, a law criminalising witchcraft, dating back to the colonial era under British rule.

President Hichilema has increasingly been accused of using the courts to silence his opponents and more generally crack down on free speech in Zambia.

Witchcraft has also played a major role in the ongoing dispute concerning the body of late president Edgar Lungu, who is currently awaiting his funeral in a morgue in South Africa as the Zambian government insists that he should be buried in Zambia despite this going against his family's wishes.

Hichilema's insistence on Lungu's burial in Zambia has fuelled rumours that the president would want to use his former rival's body for "occult purposes", an accusation denied by the government.