Tanzania - Free Tundu Lissu

TANZANIA - Update on the case of Tundu Lissu

November 13, 2025:

TANZANIA - Update on the case of Tundu Lissu. Political leader on death row in Tanzania.

Little attention from Europe. The story has only been covered by the BBC and, in East Africa, by blogger Susanna Nordlund and Mwanzo TV.

In Tanzania, street clashes broke out after the 29 October elections. The government is downplaying the situation, while the opposition speaks of hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries, but independent sources are struggling to obtain reliable information.

On 10 November, 13 days after the elections, another hearing was scheduled in the trial against Tundu Lissu, which Hands off Cain has been following since its inception.

As is well known, Lissu, national president of the opposition party CHADEMA (Party for Democracy and Development, liberal-democratic orientation), was supposed to be the main opposition candidate in a country where, for over 60 years, there has been a single ruling party, which after some name changes is now called Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM, Revolutionary Party).

In the 2020 general election, Lissu's party achieved a surprising result, winning 13% of the vote in a country where opposition parties have long struggled to exceed 1%. Just three years earlier, Lissu had survived an attack by unidentified men who shot him 16 times. After a long convalescence in Kenya, he returned to politics by running in the 2020 elections in Tanzania as an opposition candidate, finishing second in the official results.

During this year's election campaign, Lissu was arrested on 9 April 2025 in Mbinga, south-western Tanzania, after a peaceful rally calling for the electoral system to be reformed to better guard against fraud. That same night, he was transferred to Dar es Salaam, more than 1,000 kilometres away.

On 10 April 2025, he was formally charged with high treason and three offences related to the dissemination of false information under cybercrime laws.

In Tanzania, high treason is a crime punishable by death. “Treason” is a common charge in authoritarian governments: those who criticise the government do so not because of actual government failings, but because they are “paid by foreign powers interested in destabilising the country”.

In this specific case, Lissu was charged over a social media post he published on 3 April in which he called on Tanzanians to boycott the upcoming elections, citing the possibility of fraud. Also on 3 April, he posted a video on YouTube in which he claimed that the Tanzanian police had played a role in electoral irregularities, which he believed had been ordered by President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who was alarmed by the results of the local elections in November 2024. In the post, Lissu also added that he could not trust the appeals process because judges in his country are not independent and are subject to pressure from the ruling party.

It is known that Lissu is being held on death row, but it is unclear whether he is in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania's largest city, although not its administrative capital) or in the surrounding area.

After a series of inconclusive preliminary hearings, which independent observers said appeared to be aimed at passing time so that the 29 October general election could take place with Lissu on trial but still without a final decision, a new hearing was set for 10 November before the High Court of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's main court.

This hearing was adjourned after a few minutes. The Tanzania Prisons Service initially announced that it would not bring Lissu to court, citing unspecified “security reasons”. The court insisted, and shortly afterwards Lissu was brought inside the barrier separating the defendant from the large crowd of his party's supporters, who applauded him. Lissu urged his supporters to resist and continue the fight. Lissu's brief appearance in the courtroom was filmed on mobile phones by those present and posted on social media. The hearing was immediately adjourned because the prosecution announced that the prosecution witnesses, from the cities of Songea, Iringa and Mbeya, were unavailable, again for security reasons. Apparently, the prosecution witnesses are not required to make any specific statements, but rather to declare that they heard Lissu discussing the level of corruption in the government. Perhaps the witnesses are expected to report on any ‘foreign instigators’ behind Lissu.

From the social media posts of Lissu's supporters, it appears that no date has been set for the next hearing.

In reality, the whole issue of “witnesses” is particularly controversial because, since the beginning of the trial, the prosecution has asked not to bring them to court but to have them testify remotely, protecting their identities. In effect, they are “secret witnesses”. The court is going along with this approach, despite legal objections raised by Lissu himself, who is a solicitor in civilian life, before entering politics, and is defending himself in this trial.

While waiting for the trial to resume, it should be noted that after initial interest from the European Parliament, which adopted a resolution on the Lissu case on 8 May 2025, there is now little information circulating not only about Lissu, but more generally about Tanzania and the clashes that seem to have swept through the country in the last two weeks.

In two long articles on 7 and 9 November, the BBC reports on a serious situation, focusing in particular on the internet blackout imposed by the government both to make it difficult for protesters to communicate with each other and to make it difficult for independent media to obtain information and, above all, images.

While dissident sources speak of “hundreds of deaths”, the government plays down the situation.

On 4 November, a doctor at Muhimbili Hospital in Dar es Salaam told the BBC that vehicles marked “Municipal Funeral Services” were collecting the bodies of those believed to have died during the protests.

Certainly, many people have been arrested and in Dar es Salaam (the economic capital of the state) alone, at least 240 of them have been charged with “treason” by the local court, a charge which, as we have seen, can carry the death penalty. In Tanzania, Hands off Cain notes, the death penalty is still in force, but in fact the last executions date back to 1994. Recently, the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights ordered Tanzania to abolish mandatory death penalty within six months, considering it a violation of the African Charter on the right to life.

"According to an indictment seen by the BBC, the defendants are accused of inciting demonstrations with the intention of obstructing the elections.

Among those charged is the well-known Tanzanian businesswoman Jenifer Jovin, accused of encouraging protesters to buy gas masks to protect themselves from police tear gas.

The defendants also include several social media influencers. The trial has been adjourned until 19 November.

On 3 November, during her inauguration speech, President Samia Suluhu Hassan acknowledged that some people had died during the protests. She attributed responsibility for the protests to unspecified “foreign actors”. This is likely a reference to neighbouring Kenya, a country that is home to several members of the opposition in exile. Tanzania and Kenya, both members of the African Economic Community, have experienced periodic political and economic tensions.

In May this year, diplomatic relations soured over Tanzania's treatment of Kenyans who had travelled to Dar es Salaam to attend the trial of Tundu Lissu. Many of them were expelled, while prominent Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi, along with Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire, disappeared and were later reported to have been tortured and sexually abused.

Samia's inauguration ceremony was held in a military parade ground in the capital, Dodoma, rather than in a stadium as in previous years. The event was closed to the public but was broadcast live on state television.

According to the government's electoral service, President Samia won the 29 October election with 97.6 per cent of the vote. As Hands off Cain reported in previous articles, not only was the main opposition candidate, Lissu, arrested, but his party (Chadema) was removed from the electoral roll. Another possible opposition leader, Luhaga Mpina of the ACT-Wazalendo party, although luckier than Lissu in that he was not arrested, was nevertheless excluded from the electoral roll for alleged “technical” irregularities in the submission of the lists.

After these events, the opposition inevitably denounced the vote as a sham. Election observers say the elections did not meet democratic standards, but without going into detail.

Samia, a leader with a calm tone and a calm and gentle demeanour, initially inspired optimism when she came to power in 2021 after the sudden death of her authoritarian predecessor, John Magufuli.

In her first few weeks, she was praised for easing political repression, but since then, political space has shrunk.

‘Samia has pushed Tanzania into a harsh winter of protests, instability and uncertainty,’ Kenyan political analyst Prof Peter Kagwanja told the BBC.

The protests, organised by young people, showed clear parallels with the global mobilisations led by Generation Z against entrenched leadership and unresponsive governments.

At the start of her second term, analysts say Samia will face increasing international scrutiny that could undermine her legitimacy as leader of the East African country.

In this context, it will be important to continue to follow the trial of Tundu Lissu.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2kp9yev5e5o?accountMarketingPreferences=on
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgz2vzlyzpo
Mwanzo TV @mwanzotv.bsky.social
Susanna Nordlund @susanna-nordlund.bsky.social
Porzia Addabbo @athenasnetwork.bsky.social