#Tundu Lissu

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…