Tanzanian Opposition Leader Tundu Lissu Jailed For Four Years 

Tanzanian opposition figure Tundu Lissu was jailed for four years on Friday for inciting unrest.

The court spared him the treason charge, which carries the death penalty, in a case that has attracted international condemnation.

Tanzania was once regarded as one of Africa’s more stable democracies, but its standing has fallen sharply as the government, in power for many years, has violently suppressed opposition and protest.

Lissu leads Chadema, the country’s main opposition party. He was arrested on treason charges before last year’s presidential election and has since spent 19 months behind bars.

The court found him not guilty of treason but convicted him of incitement, an offence he had not been charged with, and sentenced him to four years.

Addressing a courtroom full of his supporters, the judge said: “We are satisfied that through his statements, the accused intended to disrupt elections and instigate violence.”

Lissu dismissed the trial as “political persecution” and accused the judges of acting on orders from President Samia Suluhu Hassan‘s government.

“Excuses were created to imprison me,” he told the court.

He added: “I was not charged with incitement but you judges are convicting me with it just to impress the person who gives you the titles. I believe these were directives.”

Ahead of the October 2025 vote, Hassan’s government oversaw a wave of arrests and abductions of opponents and critics.

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Huge protests erupted during the election, which she went on to win with 98 percent of the vote.

According to the opposition and rights groups, security forces killed thousands in the response, while the government says 518 people died.

Security was stepped up in the commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, and around the courthouse before the verdict.

Police warned against “those who want to stage a coup”. Analysts had cautioned that a treason conviction could set off fresh unrest in the East African country.

Opposition lawmaker Ado Shaibu, secretary general of the ACT-Wazalendo party, reacted to the ruling: “It’s a dark day for the rule of law and good governance in Tanzania,’ said opposition lawmaker Ado Shaibu, secretary general of the ACT-Wazalendo party.”

‘Political repression’

British and European Union lawmakers criticised the prosecution as politically motivated and demanded Lissu’s immediate release.

In a letter to Tanzania’s president, they wrote: “The use of capital punishment against a political opponent risks turning the justice system into an instrument of political repression.”

US ambassador to Tanzania William Trachman also weighed in on X: “I am closely following the outcome of Tundu Lissu’s trial proceedings, and the broader implications for the rule of law.”

The case is only the third major treason trial in the history of mainland Tanzania. The earlier two, held in the 1970s and 1980s, involved defendants accused of plotting to overthrow and assassinate founding president Julius Nyerere.

Despite being arrested repeatedly, Lissu, 58, had never before faced charges this serious.

In 2017 he survived an assassination attempt in which he was shot 16 times. He believes the attack was politically motivated, and he needed nearly 20 surgeries afterward.