Tanzania charges in court main leader of the rival party with treason

Tundu Lissu, the leader of Tanzania’s opposition party, was charged on Thursday with treason, a capital offense, for remarks he made the previous week that, according to the prosecution, urged the populace to start an uprising and sabotage this year’s election.

As she runs for reelection, President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s human rights record will come under increased scrutiny because to the charges against Lissu, the chairman of the main opposition party CHADEMA and the runner-up in the 2020 presidential race.

Following a rally in the southwest part of Ruvuma on Wednesday, Lissu was taken into custody. He was remanded into detention after being denied the opportunity to enter a plea to the treason allegation during a court hearing in the commercial city, Dar es Salaam.

He is scheduled to return to court on April 24 after entering a not guilty plea to a different allegation of posting false information.

Rugemeleza Nshala, Lissu’s attorney, claimed that the accusations against his client were motivated by politics.

“These accusations and politics are inextricably linked,” Nshala told Reuters. “He was doing campaigns to educate CHADEMA supporters, but they have turned it into charges.”

CHADEMA has promised to abstain from the late October presidential and parliamentary elections unless substantial changes are made to an electoral system that it claims benefits the ruling party. The voting have not been scheduled.

The charging document states that the aforementioned remarks were made on April 3 in Dar es Salaam by Lissu, who escaped being shot 16 times during an assassination attempt in 2017.

“It is true we say we will prevent the election,” he said, according to the charge sheet. We’ll incite insurrection. That is how you obtain change.

Therefore, we will sabotage this election. We’re going to cause quite a stir. According to the charge sheet, he stated, “We are going to ruin it badly.”

After becoming government in 2021, Hassan received praise for reducing the widespread media restriction and repression of political opponents under her predecessor, John Magufuli, who passed away while in office.

However, she has been under increasing fire from human rights advocates for a slew of arrests as well as mysterious kidnappings and murders of her rivals.

Hassan launched a probe into suspected kidnappings last year and stated that the government is dedicated to upholding human rights.

In relation to the attack on Lissu, which Magufuli denounced at the time, no one has been taken into custody or charged.