Amnesty International has called on Tanzanian authorities to overturn the conviction and four-year prison sentence imposed on opposition leader Tundu Lissu, describing the proceedings as deeply flawed and marked by violations of his right to a fair trial.
Lissu, chairman of the opposition Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA), was on Friday, November 6, 2026, convicted of incitement and sentenced to four years in prison after the High Court in Dar es Salaam acquitted him of treason.
Tigere Chagutah, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for East and Southern Africa, said the verdict was the culmination of an unjust process, during which Lissu had spent 577 days in detention for exercising his human rights.
“Tundu Lissu should never have been arrested, let alone prosecuted and convicted. Today’s verdict and four-year prison sentence are the culmination of a deeply flawed process that was unjust from the moment of his arrest,” Chagutah said.
Amnesty said the proceedings were characterised by serious violations of Lissu’s right to a fair trial, including denial of confidential access to his lawyers, which effectively forced him to represent himself.
The organisation also cited the disconnection of live broadcasts of the proceedings and the arrest of at least two international trial observers, who were allegedly tortured and deported.
It further raised concerns about Lissu’s detention conditions, saying he had been held in a death-row cell under inhumane conditions and with limited access to religious services.
“The conviction and sentence cannot be considered as the outcome of a fair trial,” Chagutah said.
Amnesty has urged the Tanzanian authorities to quash the conviction and sentence, release Lissu immediately and unconditionally, and stop using treason and other laws to silence government critics.
The organisation also called on the government to end its crackdown on critics and uphold the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.
Lissu was arrested on April 9, 2025, following a political rally in Mbinga town in southwestern Tanzania.
Amnesty reports that police used teargas and fired shots into the air to disperse his supporters during the arrest.
He was subsequently transferred overnight to Dar es Salaam, more than 1,000 kilometres away.
On April 10, 2025, police charged him with the non-bailable offence of treason over social media posts he had made on April 3, calling on Tanzanians to boycott the October 2025 general elections over concerns about possible electoral malpractice.
The prosecution accused him of seeking to disrupt the elections through his campaign for electoral reforms.
Although the High Court acquitted him of treason, it convicted him of incitement, an offence the judges considered established by the evidence. Amnesty says the case forms part of a wider pattern in which counterterrorism and other security-related laws have been used to target opposition supporters and government critics in Tanzania.