Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu has been sentenced to four years in prison after a court cleared him of treason but convicted him of incitement, prompting accusations that the judiciary had found another way to keep one of President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s fiercest critics behind bars.
In an extraordinary confrontation with the judges, Lissu accused the court of bowing to political pressure, questioned why he had spent more than 18 months in detention facing a charge the prosecution failed to prove, and insisted he was being punished for challenging the government.
“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,” Lissu told the three-judge bench at the High Court in Dar es Salaam on Friday.
The court, led by Justice Dunstan Ndunguru, acquitted him of treason after finding that prosecutors had failed to establish that he intended to intimidate the government.
But the judges convicted him of the lesser offence of incitement and handed him a four-year prison sentence, keeping the chairman of CHADEMA, Tanzania’s main opposition party, behind bars.
Reading the judgment, Justice Ndunguru said: “We are satisfied that through his statements, the accused intended to disrupt elections and instigate violence.”
The ruling followed a prosecution arising from Lissu’s April 3, 2025 speech in which he urged Tanzanians to prevent the October general election from proceeding without electoral reforms.
Prosecutors argued that his calls to “block the election” and “mobilise rebellion” amounted to an attempt to undermine the government and disrupt the electoral process.
Lissu denied the allegations, maintaining that he was exercising his right to demand credible elections and constitutional reforms.
His arrest on April 9, 2025, came after CHADEMA adopted the position that it would not participate in the election without fundamental changes to the electoral system.
Treason is a capital offence in Tanzania, meaning Lissu faced the possibility of the death penalty throughout the proceedings.
‘I spent 577 days waiting for the hangman’s noose’
In his address to the judges before sentencing, Lissu questioned how a man who had spent 577 days in prison facing treason could eventually be convicted of a lesser offence.
“After spending 577 days in prison being called a traitor, an offence which is the gravest under the Constitution of the United Republic of Tanzania, today you call me an inciter, after I spent 577 days waiting for the hangman’s noose,” he said.
He argued that the court’s decision to acquit him of treason vindicated his position that the prosecution had failed to establish the original charge.
“What does this mean, honourable judges? It means that the offence with which I was charged was not an offence,” he said.
But he went further, accusing the judges of turning the courtroom into an arena for political battles.
“My evidence has established that this was purely a political case, designed to turn a criminal court into an arena for political warfare,” he told the court.
Lissu also accused the judges of manufacturing a lesser offence to ensure that he was not released.
“The intention was to manufacture grounds for imprisoning a political opponent. Those grounds were then manufactured in the form of an incitement offence which you, honourable judges, have effectively created,” he said.
He maintained that the court had acted on political instructions, an allegation that the judges did not accept in their judgment.
“I know you are delivering a judgment. I know it, and I feel it in my heart. Unfortunately, you have done what the High Court of Kenya did in 1954 in the case of Jomo Kenyatta,” he added.
Lissu warned that history would judge judicial officers who allowed courts to be used to punish political opponents.
“History has not been kind to judges who have turned their courts into instruments for punishing innocent people in order to appease those in power,” he said.
Plea to attend brother’s burial falls on deaf ears
The sentencing also came as Lissu mourned his elder brother, Alute Mughwai Lissu, who died on November 1 while he was in detention.
He appealed to the judges to release him so that he could attend the burial of the man he said had helped raise him and shape his career as a lawyer.
“I was hoping that this court would allow me to go and bury Mzee Alute,” he said.
He told the judges that he had been denied the opportunity to care for his brother during his illness because of his prolonged detention.
“Please do not forget that I have already spent all this time in prison for an offence which, as you yourselves have acknowledged, was not established as a criminal offence,” he said.
Lissu also appealed for leniency, citing his medical condition and the injuries he sustained during a 2017 assassination attempt.
He told the court that he had undergone 25 operations and still had a bullet lodged in his body after gunmen shot him 16 times outside his home in Dodoma.
“I am not in good health. My body bears the scars of 25 surgical operations. I have undergone numerous surgeries, and I still have a bullet lodged inside my body,” he said.
He added that he was supposed to travel to Belgium for medical appointments but had already missed four because of the case.
Lissu also disclosed that he had been living with diabetes for six years.
He asked the judges to grant him bail pending an appeal, arguing that incitement was a bailable offence.
“I am completely innocent. However, since the Chief State Attorney has made certain submissions, I wish to respond to them,” he said.
The court nevertheless sentenced him to four years in prison.
Amnesty International: ‘He should never have been arrested’
The judgment immediately attracted criticism from Amnesty International, which described the conviction and sentence as the culmination of a deeply flawed prosecution.
Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, said Lissu should not have been prosecuted in the first place.
“Tundu Lissu should never have been arrested, let alone prosecuted and convicted,” Chagutah said.
“Today’s verdict and four-year prison sentence are the culmination of a deeply flawed process that was unjust from the moment of his arrest. He has already spent 577 days in arbitrary detention solely for the peaceful exercise of his human rights.”
Amnesty said the proceedings were characterised by serious violations of his right to a fair trial.
It cited restrictions on confidential access to his lawyers, interruptions to live broadcasts of court proceedings and the arrest, alleged torture and deportation of at least two international trial observers.
The organisation also raised concerns about the conditions in which Lissu was held, saying he had been detained in a death-row cell and faced restrictions on access to religious services.
“The conviction and sentence cannot be considered the outcome of a fair trial,” Chagutah said.
He called on the Tanzanian authorities to overturn the conviction and release Lissu unconditionally.
“The Tanzanian authorities must quash Tundu Lissu’s conviction and sentence, immediately and unconditionally release him, and end the misuse of treason and other laws to silence government critics,” he said.
CHADEMA prepares appeal
CHADEMA said it would challenge the judgment and seek Lissu’s release on bail while the appeal is being heard.
The party’s chief legal officer, Dr Rugemeleza Nshala, questioned the four-year sentence, arguing that Lissu had already spent a substantial period in detention over the treason charge.
“The maximum sentence for incitement is five years. He has already spent one year and seven months in custody, and now the court has sentenced him to four years. If you add the time he has already spent in custody, that makes five years,” Nshala said.
He said the party would consult Lissu and prepare the grounds of appeal.
“Despite what has happened, we have an opportunity to appeal. We will go to court and present the grounds that have emerged,” he said.
Nshala added that the legal team would seek bail because the incitement conviction was bailable even after sentencing, subject to the applicable legal requirements.
Washington watches Tanzania’s justice system
The case has also attracted attention from Western governments, with the United States expressing concern about its implications for the rule of law.
US Ambassador to Tanzania William Trachman said he was following the proceedings and their wider implications for the country’s justice system.
“I am closely following the outcome of Tundu Lissu’s trial proceedings, and the broader implications for the rule of law,” Trachman said in a statement posted on X.
British and European Union lawmakers had also raised concerns about the prosecution, describing it as politically motivated and calling for Lissu’s release.
In a letter to President Samia, the lawmakers warned: “The use of capital punishment against a political opponent risks turning the justice system into an instrument of political repression.”
Lissu’s prosecution began against the backdrop of growing tensions between CHADEMA and Samia’s administration over electoral reforms.
The opposition leader had returned from exile in January 2023 after the President lifted a ban on political rallies imposed during the administration of her predecessor, John Magufuli.
However, the political opening did not resolve the opposition’s concerns about the electoral system.
Lissu was shot 16 times in September 2017 in an attack outside his home in Dodoma. He survived after undergoing treatment in Tanzania, Kenya and Belgium. No one has been charged over the shooting.
His return to Tanzania was followed by his election as CHADEMA chairman in January 2025, placing him at the forefront of the party’s preparations for the October general election.
His arrest came after he demanded electoral reforms, while CHADEMA was subsequently excluded from the election after failing to sign the electoral code of conduct.
The vote was followed by deadly protests, with a government-appointed commission reporting that at least 518 people had died. Human rights organisations accused security forces of excessive force, allegations the government disputed.
President Samia was declared the winner with nearly 98 per cent of the vote.
Lissu’s four-year sentence now sets the stage for another legal battle, with CHADEMA preparing to challenge the conviction as international pressure mounts on the Tanzanian government.
