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

Zambian Leonard Phiri and Mozambican Jasten Mabulesse Candunde were convicted under the Witchcraft Act after being arrested in December with charms in their possession, including a live chameleon.

"It is my considered view that the convicts were not only the enemy of the head of state but were also enemies of all Zambians," magistrate Fine Mayambu said in his ruling.

The case has been closely followed in Zambia, as this was the first time anyone was put on trial for attempting to use witchcraft against a president.

The prosecution alleged that Phiri and Candunde were hired by a fugitive former MP to bewitch Hichilema.

Despite their insistence that they were bona fide traditional healers, the court found them guilty on two counts under the Witchcraft Act.

"The two accepted ownership of the charms. Phiri further demonstrated that the chameleon's tail, once pricked and used in the ritual, would cause death to occur within five days," Magistrate Mayambu said.

The lawyer for the two men, Agrippa Malando, said his clients pleaded for leniency as they were first-time offenders.

He urged the court to fine them, but the request was rejected.

Magistrate Mayambu noted that many people in Zambia, like in other African countries, believed in witchcraft, even though it was not scientifically proven.

The law was designed to protect society from fear and harm caused by those claiming to have the power to carry out acts of witchcraft, he said.

"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," Magistrate Mayambu said.

In addition to the two-year sentence they were given for "professing" witchcraft, the men were sentenced to six months in prison for possessing charms.

As the sentences will run concurrently, they will serve only two years in prison, effective from the date of their arrest in December 2024.

Hichilema has previously said he does not believe in witchcraft. He has not commented on the case.

Lawyer Dickson Jere told the BBC that the Witchcraft Act was passed during colonial rule in 1914.

He said people were "very rarely" prosecuted for practising witchcraft, but it helped protect elderly women who faced mob justice in villages after being accused of bewitching someone and causing their death.

Witchcraft has also featured prominently in conversations over the protracted dispute between the government and the family of the late President Edgar Lungu over his funeral.

Some people believe that the government's insistence that he should be buried in Zambia, contrary to his family's wishes, may be for "occult reasons".

The government has denied the accusation.

Lungu died in South Africa in June, and his body is still in a morgue there because of the failure to reach agreement over his burial.

BBC