{"id":22541,"date":"2026-11-08T11:05:24","date_gmt":"2026-11-08T11:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=22541"},"modified":"2026-11-08T11:05:24","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T11:05:24","slug":"tanzanian-opposition-celebrates-victorious-day-after-leader-avoids-death-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/22541\/tanzanian-opposition-celebrates-victorious-day-after-leader-avoids-death-penalty\/","title":{"rendered":"Tanzanian opposition celebrates ‘victorious’ day after leader avoids death penalty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tanzania’s main opposition Chadema party celebrated a “victorious day”<\/em> on Friday, after a court found their leader Tundu Lissu not guilty of treason.<\/p>\n

Lissu was instead sentenced to four years in jail for inciting unrest, a charge that was not in the case. If upheld, this sentence could bar him from running in Tanzania’s next election in 2030.<\/p>\n

“We considered today as a victorious day for our party,” said Chadema’s deputy chairperson John Heche.<\/p>\n

“From a case in which our leader has falsely been accused of treason to another false, fake case of incitement, this is a victorious day for our fellow Tanzanians.”<\/p>\n

Representatives for the Chadema party said they would appeal the sentence and seek bail in the meantime.<\/p>\n

Tundu Lissu was arrested ahead of last year’s presidential election on treason charges, which carry a potential death penalty.<\/p>\n

He has spent 19 months in jail, in a case that has drawn international condemnation.<\/p>\n

‘Political persecution’<\/h2>\n

British and European Union lawmakers described it as politically motivated and called for Lissu’s immediate release.<\/p>\n

“The use of capital punishment against a political opponent risks turning the justice system into an instrument of political repression,”<\/em> the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Tanzania’s president.<\/p>\n

“I am closely following the outcome of Tundu Lissu’s trial proceedings, and the broader implications for the rule of law,” US ambassador to Tanzania William Trachman posted on X.<\/p>\n

Responding to his conviction, Lissu said the trial was “political persecution”,<\/em> accusing the judges of following the government of President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s orders.<\/p>\n

“Excuses were created to imprison me,”<\/em> he told the court.<\/p>\n

“I was not charged with incitement but you judges are convicting me with it just to impress the person who gives you the titles. I believe these were directives,” he said.<\/p>\n

Tanzania was considered one of the more stable democracies in Africa but has seen its reputation plummet as the long-ruling government has cracked down brutally on the opposition and protests.<\/p>\n

Hassan’s government carried out a wave of arrests and abductions targeting opponents and critics ahead of the October 2025 ballot, sparking huge protests during the election, which she ultimately won with 98% of the vote.<\/p>\n

The authorities’ response resulted in security forces killing thousands, according to the opposition and rights groups. The government puts the death toll at 518.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tanzania’s main opposition Chadema party celebrated a “victorious day” on Friday, after a court found their leader Tundu Lissu not guilty of treason. Lissu was instead sentenced to four years in jail for inciting unrest, a charge that was not in the case. If upheld, this sentence could bar him from running in Tanzania’s next […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15959,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"AFP","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,2362,33],"tags":[5612,131,1405],"class_list":["post-22541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-africa","category-featured","category-politics","tag-chadema-party","tag-tanzania","tag-tundu-lissu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22541"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22542,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22541\/revisions\/22542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}