Zambia - September 2025

On 15 September, a magistrate’s court in Zambia sentenced two men to two years in prison with hard labour for attempting to use witchcraft to kill President Hakainde Hichilema. The high-profile case has raised fair trial concerns. The men, who are traditional healers, were convicted of ‘professing’ witchcraft and possessing charms under the colonial-era Witchcraft Act, having been found with various ‘ritual objects,’ including a live chameleon and white powder. The prosecution alleged the men had confessed to receiving money from the brother of a former opposition MP to curse the president. Witchcraft prosecutions are rare in Zambia’s formal courts, which have struggled to apply objective evidentiary standards (cases are generally heard in traditional courts). In this case, an expert commentator warned of a lack of forensically testable evidence connecting the accused to any demonstratable harm and that it likely breached their right to a fair trial and set a troubling precedent. 

Sources: Zambia Monitor, British Broadcasting Corporation, The Continent, Associated Press News, International Network Against Witchcraft Accusations and Ritual Attacks