Justices Dunstan Ndunguru, James Karayemaha and Ferdinand Kiwonde will rule on Friday in the treason trial of Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu, The Africa Report said. The CHADEMA chairman has been detained since April 2025, mostly at Ukonga maximum security prison. The state is seeking the death penalty.
The charge rests on a speech Lissu gave at a party meeting seven months before the 2025 election. According to The Africa Report, he said that without electoral reform "we will disrupt this election" and would make things "stink badly". The outlet reported that the charge sheet alleges no weapon, no plan, no payment and no violence.
The Africa Report reviewed the 944-page court record and found the evidence thin. In October 2025, the court ruled the video of the speech inadmissible, along with the flash disk, memory card and forensic report. None of the 11 listed exhibits was admitted. Nine of the 17 prosecution witnesses testified under pseudonyms. The rules allowing this were gazetted three months after Lissu's arrest.
In August, the bench still found that Lissu had a case to answer. The Africa Report argues that the judges ignored a 1996 Court of Appeal ruling that words alone are not an overt act of treason. It also notes that the bench ruled against the state on exhibits, the witness box and post-election evidence. Treason is non-bailable, so Lissu was refused bail. In February 2026, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found his detention arbitrary.
Regional observers have also been targeted. Amnesty International said supporters were violently arrested, and some reported sexual torture. Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi and Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire were detained and dumped at the Lunga Lunga and Mutukula borders. Both later disclosed sexual torture in custody. Others, including Kenya's former chief justice and a former justice minister, were deported.
The trial unfolds as charges pile up after the October 2025 election. CHADEMA was barred from contesting, and President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner with 97.66% of the vote. More than 2,000 people were arrested. The Chanzo documented at least 374 treason defendants within two weeks, some as young as 13. CHADEMA says 71 of its leaders face treason or terrorism charges.
The latest cases include CHADEMA's director of organisation, John Pambalu, who was charged on October 21. Colletha Clavery Ntidyicha, who chairs the party's Kigoma youth wing, was charged with inciting terrorism on November 3. She had been held incommunicado for 20 days. The Africa Report said more arrests of CHADEMA officials could follow the verdict.