Tundu Lissu Marks One Year in Prison on Treason Charges in Samia Suluhu’s Tanzania
Ujasusi Blog’s East Africa Monitoring Team | 09 April 2026 | 0505 BST
Tundu Antiphas Lissu, national chairperson of Tanzania’s main opposition party CHADEMA, has been held in continuous custody since 9 April 2025, following his arrest in Mbinga, Ruvuma Region, after a public rally promoting CHADEMA’s “No Reforms, No Election” campaign. Charged with treason under Section 39(2)(d) of the Penal Code, a capital and non-bailable offence, and three counts under the Cyber Crimes Act 2015, Lissu has spent one year navigating Tanzania’s court system while representing himself, his case moving from the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court through the High Court to the Court of Appeal. The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has ruled his imprisonment unlawful. President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government has not complied.
Table of Contents
The Arrest That Changed Tanzania’s Political Calculus
The Charges: Treason, Cybercrime, and a Capital Sentence
Three Courts, One Year, and a Prosecution in Retreat
The International Record Against Samia’s Government
What the Prosecution’s Strategy Reveals About Tanzania’s Intentions
Tanzania’s Democratic Deficit and Where the Case Goes Next
The Arrest That Changed Tanzania’s Political Calculus
On the evening of 9 April 2025, officers of the Tanzania Police Force approached Lissu on the podium at the conclusion of a rally in Mbinga District and ordered him into a police vehicle. Officers drove him overnight, covering more than 1,150 kilometres, to the Central Police Station in Dar es Salaam, held him incommunicado for nearly 24 hours, and brought him before the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court on 10 April 2025. Police issued no official statement on his whereabouts during that period, in direct contravention of Tanzania’s criminal procedural law.
The arrest followed a YouTube address Lissu delivered on 3 April 2025, in which he alleged that the Tanzania Police Force had participated in electoral malpractices during the November 2024 local government elections on presidential instruction, that judges operate under pressure from the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi, and that Tanzanians should refuse to participate in an unreformed election. These statements formed the factual basis for all charges the Director of Public Prosecutions subsequently filed.
The timing carried precise political logic. Lissu had just been elected CHADEMA’s national chairperson and stood as the party’s most credible presidential candidate for the October 2025 general election. Within days of his arrest, the Independent National Electoral Commission barred CHADEMA from contesting the election after party officials refused to sign the electoral code of conduct without prior reform commitments. In June 2025, the High Court suspended CHADEMA from all political activities. Tanzania’s principal opposition party faced neutralisation through two parallel instruments, judicial and administrative, within weeks of its leader’s detention.
The Charges: Treason, Cybercrime, and a Capital Sentence
The treason charge under Section 39(2)(d) of the Penal Code carries a mandatory death sentence upon conviction. The prosecution alleges that Lissu’s 3 April 2025 address constituted incitement to obstruct the general election. Three additional counts under Section 16 of the Cyber Crimes Act 2015 relate to the publication of false information: attributing electoral malpractice to the police on presidential instruction; claiming police used ballot bags to steal votes; and stating Tanzania’s judges align with CCM and deliver biased rulings.
Because treason is non-bailable under Tanzanian law, Lissu has remained in custody without possibility of release. He entered detention at Keko Remand Prison in Dar es Salaam before transfer to Ukonga Central Prison, also in Dar es Salaam, where he remained as of March 2026. The Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court, lacking jurisdiction over capital charges, referred the matter to the High Court, where a three-judge panel convened.
Lissu, a qualified advocate and former Singida East MP, chose to represent himself after prison authorities blocked confidential consultations with his legal team, a restriction he raised before the court on multiple occasions. He has since conducted cross-examination, raised procedural objections, and filed court documents from Ukonga Central Prison, including a pro se Certificate of Urgency to the Court of Appeal on 10 March 2026, citing permanent injuries from the 7 September 2017 assassination attempt and the medical appointments his continued detention has prevented him from attending.