A prolonged and unusual standoff over the remains of Zambia’s former president Edgar Lungu intensified again on Wednesday night after the government briefly assumed control of his body, only for a court to later direct that it be handed back to his family.

Almost a year after Lungu died in South Africa, his burial remains unresolved. A private period of mourning has since turned into a bitter legal and political dispute between his family and the government led by his successor.

Zambia’s attorney general said in a statement that authorities had taken custody of the body following a South African court decision permitting its release to the state. According to the statement, the remains were moved from a private funeral home in Pretoria to a separate facility operated by the South African government.

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However, an urgent court ruling issued shortly after reversed that position, ordering that the body be returned to the original funeral home where it had been held since Lungu’s death last June.

That same ruling also indicated that May 21 had been set as the date for the remains to be officially transferred to Zambian authorities, the AP reported. By Thursday, uncertainty persisted over the body’s location and whether it had already been returned to the family.

At the heart of the dispute is the fraught relationship between Lungu and current president Hakainde Hichilema. Their rivalry, long marked by deep political hostility, has continued to cast a shadow even after Lungu’s death.

The government insists Lungu should receive a state funeral in Zambia and be interred at a designated burial site for national leaders. His family, however, maintains that he explicitly expressed a wish that Hichilema should not come near his body or take part in his funeral arrangements.

The conflict reached an earlier peak in June last year when Zambian authorities obtained a court order halting a funeral service in South Africa mid-ceremony, forcing relatives to leave the church and appear in court instead.

Lungu served as Zambia’s president from 2015 until 2021. He died at the age of 68 in a South African hospital on June 5 following an undisclosed illness.

Tensions between the two men stretch back years. In 2017, during Lungu’s presidency, Hichilema was arrested, charged with treason, and held for four months before the case was dropped after international pressure.

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After losing the 2021 election to Hichilema, Lungu later alleged that his movements were being restricted by police and that he had effectively been placed under house arrest to block any political return. The current government rejected those claims.