Tanzania jails opposition leader Tundu Lissu for four years

Tanzania’s main opposition leader, Tundu Lissu, was sentenced to four years in jail on Nov. 6, 2026 after a High Court in Dar es Salaam acquitted him of treason but convicted him of inciting unrest around the disputed 2025 election, the BBC reported.

If the sentence is upheld, it would rule the 58-year-old leader of the Chadema party out of the next general election, due in 2030. Lissu has been in detention since April 2025, and he has leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal, the country’s highest court, the BBC said.

A panel of three judges found prosecutors had failed to prove a key element of the treason charge, which can carry the death penalty. They ruled instead that Lissu’s campaign slogan, “No Reforms, No Election”, was enough to convict him of incitement. “By uttering those words with the intention of disseminating them to the public, the accused incited the public to disrupt the 2025 elections,” the court said, according to the BBC.

Lissu, a lawyer who represented himself, has denied the charges and described the prosecution as politically motivated. He told the court the incitement offence was one the judges had “manufactured” and said he wanted to apply for bail, which is possible for incitement but not for treason, the BBC reported. Al Jazeera also reported the four-year sentence and said the trial has been widely condemned as politically motivated.

Amnesty International called the conviction a “travesty of justice”. Tigere Chagutah, the group’s regional director for East and Southern Africa, said Lissu should never have been arrested, let alone prosecuted and convicted, the BBC reported.

The case grows out of the October 2025 election, which President Samia Suluhu Hassan won with 98 per cent of the vote after her two main challengers, including Lissu, were excluded. The opposition called the result a mockery of democracy. A violent security crackdown on protests that followed left at least 500 people dead, according to an official inquiry, while opposition groups say the toll was far higher. The government has denied targeting its opponents and rejected accusations of repression, the BBC said.

Lissu was arrested in April 2025, shortly after launching a campaign demanding changes to the electoral system. Chadema’s demands included independently appointed electoral commissioners, the right to challenge presidential results in court and freedom to campaign without intimidation. He survived an assassination attempt in 2017 and spent years in exile before returning in 2023.

For Canadians, the ruling comes as the federal government’s travel advice for Tanzania stands at “exercise a high degree of caution” because of crime and the threat of terrorism. Global Affairs Canada last updated the advisory on Oct. 30, 2026, removing information on demonstrations. Canadians in Tanzania can check the current advisory before travelling.

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