Tanzania: Tundu Lissu cleared of treason but jailed for four years for incitement
The Chadema leader avoids the death penalty but says the conviction, on a charge he did not face, is political persecution.
Tanzania's High Court has acquitted the opposition leader Tundu Lissu of treason, an offence that carries the death penalty, but convicted him of incitement and sentenced him to four years' imprisonment.
The chairman of Chadema, the main opposition party, was arrested in April 2025 ahead of last year's presidential election and has spent 19 months in detention. Incitement was not among the charges brought against him. "We are satisfied that through his statements, the accused intended to disrupt elections and instigate violence," the presiding judge told a packed courtroom.
Mr Lissu, 58, who represented himself, described the trial as "political persecution" and accused the judges of acting on the instructions of President Samia Suluhu Hassan's government. "I was not charged with incitement but you judges are convicting me with it," he said. "I believe these were directives."
Chadema's deputy chairman, John Heche, nonetheless called the outcome "a victorious day" given that the treason charge had fallen away. The party will appeal and seek bail. If upheld, the sentence could prevent Mr Lissu from standing in the 2030 election.
The case drew condemnation from British and European Union lawmakers, who warned that seeking capital punishment against a political opponent risked turning the justice system "into an instrument of political repression". The United States ambassador, William Trachman, said he was following the case closely.
Tanzania's reputation has suffered since the crackdown surrounding the October 2025 election, during which the opposition and rights groups say security forces killed thousands; the government puts the toll at 518. It was only the third high-profile treason trial in mainland Tanzania's history. Mr Lissu survived an assassination attempt in 2017 in which he was shot 16 times.