The trial has added to rising concerns across East Africa about threats to democracy.
The leader of Tanzania’s main opposition party has appeared in court at a hearing in an ongoing trial on charges of treason, in which he potentially faces the death penalty.
Tundu Lissu issued a message of defiance to supporters on Monday as he took his place in the dock at Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in the capital, Dar-es-Salaam. The trial has added to rising concerns across East Africa about threats to democracy.
Lissu entered the courtroom with his fist raised in the air as supporters chanted, “No reforms, no election”, according to a video of the courtroom shared by his Chadema party on X.
“We will be fine. … Don’t worry at all,” Lissu said as he addressed supporters.
The opposition leader, who came second in the 2020 presidential election, insisted on attending the proceedings in person after being forced to appear via videolink from prison for an earlier hearing on April 24.
Lissu, who was shot 16 times in a 2017 attack, was charged with treason last month over what prosecutors said was a speech calling on the public to rebel and disrupt presidential and legislative elections scheduled for October.
His Chadema party has been disqualified from this year’s polls after demanding changes to an electoral process that it said favours the ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi, which has been in power since the country’s independence from British rule in 1961.
#NoReformsNoElection pic.twitter.com/DYxD1RauWl
— Chadema Tanzania (@ChademaTZ2) May 19, 2025
A series of high-profile arrests has highlighted the rights record of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who plans to seek re-election in October. She has insisted that the government is committed to respecting human rights.
However, several Kenyan rights activists, including a former justice minister, said they were denied entry to Tanzania as they tried to travel to attend Lissu’s trial.
The former minister, Martha Karua, a prominent lawyer and opposition politician, and former Supreme Court President Willy Mutunga were among those detained when they landed at Julius Nyerere International Airport in Dar-es-Salaam, they said on X.
Tanzania’s immigration spokesperson Paul Mselle did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“Today was going to be a big day, and we went out there in solidarity,” Karua told the Kenyan broadcaster NTV on Monday after she was denied entry and sent back to Nairobi.
“The state cannot be used as a personal tool. You cannot deport people whom you don’t like, who are not aligned to your views.”
We, @WMutunga, @Honeyfarsafi and I, have been detained at Julius Nyerere Airport, Dar es Salaam as we came in for the observance of @TunduALissu’s case.
The trip was in solidarity with Tanzania lawyers and human rights defenders.
They have not given reasons for the detention. pic.twitter.com/ad8UVtT4me
— husseinkhalid (@husskhalid) May 19, 2025
Mutunga and rights activist Hussein Khalid were being held in an interrogation room at Julius Nyerere airport on Monday and were expected to be deported, Khalid said on X.
Karua said last month that Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were “collaborating” in their “total erosion of democratic principles” amid rising concerns regarding democracy across East Africa.
Ethiopia’s leading opposition party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, was banned from any political activity last week, before elections due by June 2026 at the latest.
South Sudan has repeatedly delayed holding its first national elections, and President Salva Kiir has placed longtime rival First Vice President Riek Machar under house arrest.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame last year won re-election with more than 99 percent of the vote amid long-running accusations of repression targeting the opposition.
