In Dar es Salaam on Friday, 6 November 2026, the High Court of Tanzania sentenced 58-year-old Tundu Antiphas Mughwai Lissu, national chairman of the opposition Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA), to four years in prison for incitement.

A three-judge panel led by Justice Dunstan Ndunguru acquitted him of the more serious charge of treason, which carries the death penalty, after finding that prosecutors had failed to prove an intention to intimidate the government.

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Lissu, a lawyer and former Member of Parliament for Singida East, has been in custody since his arrest on 9 April 2025 in Mbinga, Ruvuma Region.

He was charged the following day over remarks made during CHADEMA’s “No Reforms, No Election” campaign ahead of the October 2025 general election.

Because treason is a non-bailable offence under Tanzanian law, he spent 577 days in detention before the verdict.

The court held that statements urging supporters to obstruct or disrupt the election, including the party slogan itself, amounted to the lesser offence of incitement under Section 390 of the Penal Code.

Justice Ndunguru stated that by uttering those words with the intention of disseminating them publicly, the accused had incited disruption of the polls.

Lissu, who represented himself, rejected the finding.

“The offence of incitement is one that you, honourable judges, have manufactured. You have created an offence that did not exist, and you have done so on political directives,” he told the panel.

He added that “those who are innocent, like me, do not apologise.”

During mitigation, Lissu described himself as a law-abiding citizen who had served in the military and urged the judges to consider his health.

He has lived with diabetes for six years, undergone approximately 25 surgical operations, and still carries bullets in his body from a 2017 assassination attempt in which unknown gunmen shot him 16 times outside his home in Dodoma.

The court nonetheless imposed a custodial sentence rather than a fine and did not grant bail, though it confirmed his right to appeal to the Court of Appeal.

The case has drawn sustained international criticism.

Human rights groups and the United Nations have described the proceedings as politically motivated, arguing that they form part of a broader pattern of restricting opposition activity under President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government.

CHADEMA was effectively sidelined from the 2025 election, and Lissu’s arrest contributed to protests in which hundreds of people were reported to have died.

If the four-year term is upheld, Lissu will be barred from contesting the next general election in 2030.

Supporters chanted as he arrived at court under heavy security.

He also asked to be released temporarily to attend the funeral of his elder brother, Alute Mughwai Lissu, who died days earlier.

His party has said it will appeal both the conviction and the sentence.

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The verdict removes the immediate threat of capital punishment but leaves Tanzania’s most prominent opposition figure behind bars at a moment of heightened tension over political space and electoral integrity.