Tanzania’s High Court has acquitted opposition leader Tundu Lissu of treason but sentenced him to four years in prison for incitement, in a verdict that keeps the country’s most prominent opposition figure behind bars after more than 18 months in detention.
A three-judge panel in Dar es Salaam delivered the ruling on Friday, finding that prosecutors had failed to prove the central element of the treason charge: that Lissu intended to intimidate the government. Treason carries the death penalty under Tanzanian law, and the acquittal removes the gravest threat hanging over the chairman of the main opposition party, CHADEMA.
The judges instead convicted Lissu of incitement, a lesser offence, over remarks he made calling on supporters to prevent and disrupt the October 2025 general election under the party’s campaign slogan “No Reforms, No Election”. The charge stemmed from a speech he gave at CHADEMA headquarters in Dar es Salaam on 3 April 2025. He was arrested six days later in Mbinga, in the Ruvuma region, and has been in detention ever since — 577 days by the time of Friday’s judgment.
Presiding judge Dunstan Ndunguru handed down the four-year sentence and told Lissu he had the right to appeal. His party said he planned to do so. “We sentence you to four years in prison but the doors are open for appeal,” the judge said, according to reports from the courtroom.
Lissu responded that the trial was “political persecution”, accusing the judges of following orders from the government of President Samia Suluhu Hassan. Rights groups and his supporters have long described the case as politically motivated, and Amnesty International has called for his release.
The case has loomed over Tanzanian politics since Lissu’s arrest helped fuel the worst political unrest in the country’s history around the October 2025 elections. It was only the third high-profile treason trial in mainland Tanzania’s history. Lissu, a lawyer and former member of parliament for Singida East, survived an assassination attempt in 2017 in which he was shot 16 times, and has become the most recognisable face of the opposition to President Samia’s government.
The verdict leaves CHADEMA without its leader in prison even as the treason charge that had threatened his life is gone. Whether the Court of Appeal overturns the incitement conviction will now decide how long Tanzania’s best-known opposition figure remains behind bars.
Sources: Associated Press (https://www.ottumwacourier.com/news/national_news/tanzania-opposition-leader-lissu-sentenced-to-4-years-for-incitement-acquitted-of-treason/article_2f77e105-308b-5923-83e1-fb665070b4b6.html); Reuters (https://985theriver.com/2026/11/06/tanzanian-court-clears-opposition-leader-lissu-of-treason/).
