Tanzania's main opposition leader, Tundu Lissu, was cleared of treason but found guilty of incitement and sentenced to four years in jail on Friday, November 6, by a three-judge panel of the High Court in Dar es Salaam, in a case rights groups and his supporters say is politically motivated. The panel ruled that prosecutors had failed to prove a key element of treason — that Lissu intended to intimidate the government — but found that his remarks urging electoral reforms and telling followers the opposition would disrupt the 2025 general election amounted to incitement.

Source: Reuters via Devdiscourse

Lissu, chairman of the main opposition party CHADEMA, was arrested in April 2025 and charged with treason over a speech in which prosecutors say he told supporters that the opposition would "block the election" and "mobilise rebellion". His campaign slogan was "No Reforms, No Election". The court ruled that by uttering those words with the intention of disseminating them to the public, he incited the public to disrupt the 2025 elections. Lissu had pleaded not guilty, defending himself at trial and arguing that his speech did not violate any law and that the charges were politically motivated. He objected in court that he had faced only a treason accusation, not incitement — telling the judges, as one report of the ruling put it: "I was not charged with incitement but you judges are convicting me with it just to impress the person who gives you the titles." The panel granted him leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal, Tanzania's highest court, but he will remain in prison while he pursues it.

Police surrounded the courtroom in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam and crowds gathered nearby as authorities brought Lissu to the hearing in a heavily guarded convoy. Footage posted on CHADEMA's X account showed Lissu being escorted to court by guards, some masked, waving his fist briefly and shouting "Do not fear!" in Swahili; in the dock, dressed in a black short-sleeved shirt with a blue rosary around his left arm, he waved to the packed courtroom and shouted "We will arrive", with people responding "Yes" in Swahili. CHADEMA's vice president John Heche and deputy secretary general Amani Golugwa were present for the ruling, and the party announced the outcome on its X account. Lissu planned to appeal against the jail sentence, his party's spokesperson, Brenda Rupia, told Reuters.

Source: People Daily

A case that fuelled Tanzania's worst unrest

Lissu's arrest, along with CHADEMA's disqualification from the vote and allegations by rights groups that government critics were abducted, was a key driver of protests that broke out during the October 2025 elections — the worst political unrest in the country's history. Hundreds died as police opened fire on protesters in multiple cities. A commission appointed by President Samia Suluhu Hassan said in April that at least 518 people were killed in the violence, which it blamed on protesters; her government denied allegations by human rights groups that the security services used excessive force, and dismissed accusations of a crackdown on dissent, saying protesters started the violence. Hassan was declared winner of the election with nearly 98% of the vote. Earlier this week, the police commander in Dar es Salaam warned that legal action would be taken against anyone planning to break the law when the verdict was issued.

The case was only the third high-profile treason trial in mainland Tanzania's history. The US ambassador to Tanzania, William Trachman, wrote on X on Thursday that he was closely following the trial and its "broader implications for the rule of law"; the US government said last December it was reviewing its relationship with Tanzania due to violence against civilians and other concerns.

Lissu, 58, survived being shot 16 times in an assassination attempt in 2017; no one has ever been charged in that case. He went into exile and returned briefly in 2020 to stand in the presidential election against the incumbent John Magufuli, finishing runner-up. He returned permanently in 2023 after President Hassan eased political repression that had intensified under Magufuli, who died in office in 2021 — but Hassan soon faced growing criticism from human rights activists for cracking down on opponents, accusations she denied. What happens next turns on the appeal: if the Court of Appeal upholds the incitement conviction, Tanzania's best-known opposition figure stays behind bars for four years; if it overturns it, the verdict that ended the treason case could still reshape the country's politics.