(Adnkronos) – Guilty of inciting unrest. With this accusation, Tundu Lissu, the main opposition leader, who has led Chadema since January last year, was sentenced to four years in prison in Tanzania. His case, highlighted by the BBC, is making headlines worldwide and raises questions about freedoms in the country after Amnesty International last week accused the government of continuing repression after last year’s bloody and disputed vote and of “instrumentalizing anti-terrorism laws to silence dissent and sow fear”.
Tundu Lissu was acquitted by the High Court of Dar es Salaam of the charge of treason, which carries the death penalty, but was convicted for encouraging his supporters to boycott last year’s elections. Lissu, 58, under arrest since April, denies all charges and denounces what he considers politically motivated accusations. For the judges, his campaign slogan “No reforms, no elections” was sufficient for the conviction. Lissu, who defended himself during the trial, stated that he had been accused of treason, not incitement. “The crime of incitement is a crime, dear judges, that you have invented – he said in court – You have invented a crime that does not exist and you did it based on political directives.” He added that he intends to seek bail. He can appeal to the Court of Appeal.
Samia Suluhu Hassan, 66, the first female president of Tanzania, won the October 2025 elections almost unopposed – securing nearly 98% of the votes – followed by protests and violent repression that left at least 500 dead, according to disputed official figures. The consultations were a farce for the opposition, while the president, in power since 2021, after having effectively secured a second term, insisted on what she described as a transparent vote and denounced a foreign plot against her.
The government has repeatedly rejected accusations of targeting the opposition. The Chadema leader had been arrested six months before the vote, shortly after the start of the election campaign with the demand for changes in the electoral system. He came under fire accused of wanting to incite public opinion against the vote and of treason for his words. But Tundu Lissu defended himself by arguing that everything fell within legitimate initiatives in the name of constitutional and electoral reforms and maintained that his statements were taken out of context and, above all, that there was no evidence of any crime.
During his pre-trial detention in Dar es Salaam prison, the BBC recalls, Lissu went on hunger strike twice for short periods to protest the impossibility of meeting his lawyers and relatives. He also reported that agents had listened in on what should have been private conversations with lawyers. All denied by the prison administration authorities.
In 2017, Lissu, first elected to Parliament in 2010, survived an attack in Dodoma, but – hit by several gunshots – was forced to undergo various surgeries and medical treatments abroad. Those responsible for the attack were never identified. And Lissu spent years away from Tanzania, until his return in 2020 for the presidential elections. He did not succeed in his endeavor. The opposition denounced widespread irregularities, and for Lissu, another period of exile began.
President John Magufuli died in 2021 (Mama Samia, as supporters call her, had been his vice president since 2015). Lissu returned to his homeland in 2023 when the president decided to lift the ban on opposition demonstrations.
The next presidential elections are scheduled for October 2030. John Kitoka, Chadema’s head of international relations, told Agence France-Presse unequivocally that “the main objective of the sentence was to keep” Lissu “in prison for the next consultations”.
