NAIROBI — Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu was charged with treason on Thursday, following remarks urging citizens to resist upcoming elections later this year. Lissu, who chairs the main opposition party CHADEMA and was the runner-up in the 2020 presidential race, was arrested a day earlier after addressing a rally in Ruvuma, a region in the country’s southwest.
Appearing in a court in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial hub, Lissu was barred from entering a plea on the treason charge. However, he pleaded not guilty to a separate allegation of disseminating false information.
The development casts a new shadow over President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s human rights record as she campaigns for re-election. Upon assuming office in 2021 after the death of her predecessor John Magufuli, Hassan had been praised for loosening restrictions on political freedoms and easing media censorship. However, rights groups have grown increasingly critical amid a wave of arrests, enforced disappearances, and killings of government critics.
Hassan has maintained that her administration is committed to human rights, ordering investigations into reports of abductions last year. Yet, Lissu’s arrest — and now, his treason charge — is likely to intensify domestic and international scrutiny.
Lissu has been touring the country under the banner of CHADEMA’s “No reforms, no election” movement, demanding meaningful political changes before any national vote takes place.