Uganda: the first clear conviction secured under the 2021 human-sacrifice statute
Request a correction or replyRecord class
Context only
Evidence status
Convicted
Authority role
a witchdoctor found in possession of human remains bought from other practitioners
Organization
No organization assigned
Archive classification
This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.
No individual victim is identified and none is asserted. The record's significance is legal: it is the clearest located instance of Uganda's dedicated human-sacrifice statute actually producing a conviction.
- Prosperity, divination, or curse-removal claim
- Violent occult ideology or sacrifice
Evidence structure
Proceedings
2024-06-10 · guilty plea and sentence under the Prevention and Prohibition of Human Sacrifice Act 2021
High Court of Uganda at Kampala (Lady Justice Margaret Mutonyi). John Magombe, a witchdoctor raided in February 2023, pleaded guilty to possession of human body parts — three skulls purchased from other practitioners — and was sentenced to seven years, reduced to roughly five years and eight months after credit for time on remand. He was charged and convicted under Uganda's Prevention and Prohibition of Human Sacrifice Act 2021 itself.
Documented coercion mechanisms
- a trade in human body parts sustaining the ritual economy
Cited record
Sources
- national newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report Daily Monitor: 'Witch doctor found with human skulls jailed 7 years'.
National paper of record's court report.
Source provenance
Source access and integrity log
This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.
- Source and tier basis
- https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/witch-doctor-found-with-human-skulls-jailed-7-years-4653688 Corpus classification: national-newspaper-court-reporting; evidentiary role: verdict-and-sentencing-report. SHA-256 90fafa8cf12a4eb5ad747af0926589c96b35a96cf5b6719b4e6d313741622106
- Retrieval
- 2026-07-20 · Preserved
- Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
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Related record
Related cases · Nigerian juju
- 2001 · London, UK 'Adam' — child ritual murder, torso in the Thames
- 2003 · London, UK Hackney 'witch-child' torture case
- 2012 · Canterbury, UK Osolase — juju sex-trafficking conviction (20 yrs)
- 2016 · Benin Benin 'voodoo convents' — child servitude for ritual debt
- 2018 · Benin City, Nigeria Oba of Benin revokes juju trafficking oaths
- 2018 · Spain Europol op: 89 arrests, Nigerian juju trafficking ring
- 2018 · Paris, France Paris trial — voodoo-oath sex-trafficking network
- 2018 · Birmingham, UK Iyamu — 1st Modern Slavery Act cross-border juju conviction