diff --git a/mutalyzer/File.py b/mutalyzer/File.py
index 90641c3c6dc80a2bedd3281058fa9d57d8e598f0..add6e5d4ef000980f7ccf9d41b585ce0ff89bb32 100644
--- a/mutalyzer/File.py
+++ b/mutalyzer/File.py
@@ -143,7 +143,7 @@ class File() :
         handle.seek(0)
 
         if result['confidence'] > 0.5:
-            encoding = result['encoding']
+            encoding = unicode(result['encoding'])
         else:
             encoding = 'utf-8'
 
diff --git a/mutalyzer/Retriever.py b/mutalyzer/Retriever.py
index 286caf3e8d426631e08e5578add48a80aaafe4c4..4cfaf6428113af4bf1c0a00ea88ccdace7d984a3 100644
--- a/mutalyzer/Retriever.py
+++ b/mutalyzer/Retriever.py
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ class Retriever(object) :
         """
         result = chardet.detect(raw_data)
         if result['confidence'] > 0.5:
-            encoding = result['encoding']
+            encoding = unicode(result['encoding'])
         else:
             encoding = 'utf-8'