Opposition leader Tundu Lissu was sentenced to four years in prison on Friday by a Tanzanian court for incitement, while being cleared of treason charges that carried a possible death sentence.
The 58-year-old head of the Chadema party has been held since April 2025. DW said a trio of judges at the High Court in Dar es Salaam found that his campaign rallying cry "No Reforms, No Election" was meant to provoke the public into disrupting the contested 2025 general election.
Lissu, who defended himself at trial, told the bench he had faced only a treason accusation, not incitement. "The offense of incitement is one that you, honourable judges, have manufactured. You have created an offense that did not exist, and you have done so on political directives," he said, in an apparent reference to President Samia Suluhu Hassan.
Prosecutors had contended that Lissu's remarks urging electoral reforms and telling followers the opposition would "block the election" and "mobilize rebellion" constituted treason. The court ruled prosecutors did not prove the treason count but said his words were enough for an incitement conviction, BBC News reported.
British and European Union legislators labelled the proceedings politically driven and demanded Lissu's release, DW said. "The use of capital punishment against a political opponent risks turning the justice system into an instrument of political repression," they wrote to Hassan.
Lissu's detention and Chadema's disqualification from the October 2025 vote helped spark protests across Tanzania. RFI said a state-appointed commission placed the death toll at a minimum of 518 and faulted protesters for the bloodshed. Opposition groups and rights bodies put the figure far higher and blame security forces for excessive force, which the government rejects.
Hassan secured 98 percent of the vote after her two chief rivals, Lissu among them, were kept off the ballot, RFI noted. The opposition called the outcome a "mockery" of democracy.
Lissu, a lawyer and long-time foe of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party, survived a 2017 assassination attempt when gunmen fired 16 rounds at his vehicle outside his Dodoma home. He may appeal the conviction to the Court of Appeal, Tanzania's highest court.