Tanzanian opposition leader’s treason trial opens weeks before election

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DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) -Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu went on trial for treason on Monday in the capital Dar es Salaam, weeks before the East African country holds an election that his party has been barred from contesting.

Lissu, who came second in the last presidential poll in 2020, was arrested in April and charged with treason over what prosecutors said was a speech calling on the public to rebel and disrupt the elections later this month.

Lissu had vowed to boycott the vote unless significant reforms were made to an electoral process which he said favours the Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party of President Samia Suluhu Hassan, which has been in power since independence in 1961.

Lissu, who leads the CHADEMA opposition party, survived being shot 16 times in an assassination attempt in 2017. No one has ever been charged in the case. 

He has pleaded not guilty in the treason case, and his lawyer has said the charges are politically motivated.

Judges are expected to hear testimonies from the first state witnesses on Monday, according to CHADEMA. In a statement late on Sunday CHADEMA said their leader was “firm, steadfast, and ready” for the trial which is expected to take weeks.

As the trial began, Lissu said some of his supporters had been beaten and blocked from entering the court room, one of his lawyers, Jebra Kambole, told Reuters.

The court has banned live coverage at the request of the state prosecutor, to conceal the identities of their witnesses.

His detention as well as alleged abductions of government critics in the last year have shone a spotlight on the human rights record of Hassan, who is widely expected to win the October 28 election.

Tanzania’s electoral commission barred CHADEMA in April from participating in the poll after the party failed to sign a code of conduct document.

The commission also disqualified the leader of Tanzania’s second-largest opposition party from running for president, leaving only candidates from minor parties to challenge Hassan.  

Hassan won plaudits after coming to power in 2021 for easing repression of political opponents and censorship of the media that proliferated under her predecessor, John Magufuli, who died in office.

But she has faced mounting criticism from human rights activists over the alleged abductions and arrests of other political opponents. 

Hassan has said her government is committed to respecting human rights and ordered an investigation into reports of abductions last year. No official findings have been made public.

(Writing by Hereward Holland and Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Aaron Ross, William Maclean, Ammu Kannampilly, Alexandra Hudson)