DAR ES SALAAM-(MaraviPost)-Tanzania’s main opposition leader has walked away from a treason charge that could have cost him his life, after the High Court in Dar es Salaam said prosecutors had not made out their case.
Tundu Lissu, who leads CHADEMA, was instead convicted on Friday, November 6, 2026, of a lesser crime — incitement — after more than a year in custody.
The ruling was delivered by a bench of three judges under Justice Dunstan Ndunguru.
The panel held that the state had failed on one essential part of the treason allegation.
At the same time, the judges found that Lissu’s public appeals for people to halt and derail the 2025 General Election did amount to incitement.
They relied on a provision in Tanzania’s Criminal Procedure Act — Section 319 — that allows judges to convict for a lesser offence when the evidence supports it, even if prosecutors never charged it separately.
That conviction was imposed under Section 390 of the Penal Code.
The treason matter is now closed, but Lissu still faces a sentence for the offence the court substituted in its place.
The case against him
The charges grew out of Lissu’s arrest in April 2025, during a campaign for electoral change ahead of the October 2025 polls.
CHADEMA had been pressing, under the banner “No Reforms, No Election”, for the voting system to be overhauled before Tanzanians cast their ballots.
The state contended that Lissu’s speeches were aimed at getting the public to sabotage the election and to confront the government.
Prosecutors pointed to remarks in which he was said to have told supporters to obstruct voting and to organise an uprising.
Lissu rejected that interpretation. He said his comments belonged to a legitimate drive for electoral and constitutional change.
He also argued that his words had been lifted out of context and that the prosecution was driven by politics.
How the judges reached their decision
The panel concluded that the prosecution had fallen short on a central element needed to prove treason.
It found, however, that the material before the court was enough to prove incitement.
In reaching that conclusion, the judges weighed evidence about Lissu’s public statements, including accounts from witnesses who said those statements had pushed people to join efforts to interfere with the election.
They therefore returned a guilty verdict on incitement under Section 390 of the Penal Code.
The difference is crucial. The grave accusation of treason has fallen away, but the court has still attached criminal blame to Lissu for incitement.
His response after 577 days behind bars
Lissu immediately challenged the logic of the outcome, focusing on the time he had already spent in detention on a treason charge.
As reported by Tanzania’s The Guardian, he told the court in mitigation that he had been held for 577 days and treated as a traitor, only to end up convicted of a lesser offence.
He characterised the trial as political persecution and said his calls for electoral reform and his political stance were what had really triggered the case.
He has also made clear that he plans to take the matter to the Court of Appeal, the country’s apex court.
What comes after the verdict
The acquittal on treason does not automatically release him.
What is still outstanding is the punishment for incitement.
State Attorney Nassor Katuga advised the court that the offence can attract up to five years in jail, a fine, or both.
At the time of reporting, the court was still hearing submissions on mitigation ahead of sentencing.
Because Lissu has been detained since April 2025, close attention will be paid to the eventual sentence and to how his time already served is handled.
Why the case gripped Tanzania
Interest in the trial stretched well beyond Tanzania’s borders, because it unfolded amid deep political friction around the 2025 elections.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared to have won the October 2025 poll with 98 percent of the vote. CHADEMA and other critics cast doubt on the credibility of the process.
The arrest of Lissu, the barring of CHADEMA from the contest, and reports of abductions and mistreatment of government critics helped fuel widespread unrest.
Hundreds lost their lives in election-related violence. A commission set up by President Hassan put the toll at no fewer than 518 deaths and blamed protesters. The government has pushed back against claims from rights groups that security forces used disproportionate force.
It has consistently denied singling out opponents for persecution.
For Lissu and CHADEMA, the trial has become a rallying point in their push for political and electoral change.
The High Court has now separated the original treason claim from the lesser offence it found proven.
After 577 days in detention facing a capital charge, the clearing of Lissu on treason is a major turn. Yet with an incitement conviction now against his name, his fight in the courts is not finished.
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