Tanzanian Court Acquits Tundu Lissu of Treason, Gives Four-Year Incitement Sentence

Tanzania’s High Court acquitted opposition leader Tundu Lissu of treason on 6 November but convicted him of incitement and sentenced him to four years in prison. The ruling was delivered in Dar es Salaam by a three-judge panel led by Justice Dunstan Ndunguru. Lissu is the national chairman of the opposition party Chadema. The judges found that prosecutors had not established an intention to intimidate the government, an essential element of the treason charge. They nevertheless concluded that Lissu’s public calls to prevent or disrupt the 2025 general election amounted to incitement. Ndunguru said Section 319 of the Criminal Procedure Act allowed the court to convict on a lesser offence even if it had not been separately charged. He identified incitement under Section 390 of the Penal Code as that offence. Lissu challenged the decision, arguing that he had faced a treason charge rather than an incitement charge. “You have created an offense that did not exist,” he told the court. He has described the prosecution as politically motivated. The court treated his campaign slogan, “No Reforms, No Election”, as sufficient for the incitement conviction. Lissu, 58, has been detained since April 2025, after campaigning for electoral and constitutional reforms. Treason can carry the death penalty. He has leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal, Tanzania’s highest court. He also said he wanted to seek bail because incitement permits it, unlike treason; no grant of bail or release was confirmed.