Tundu Lissu awaits treason verdict, vows hunger strike protest

Tanzania's main opposition leader Tundu Lissu stands in the dock at Kisutu magistrate's court in Dar es Salaam on May 19, 2025. [AFP]

Detained Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu plans to go on a hunger strike on Monday to demand that prison authorities allow him to privately meet his lawyers, his party said.

Lissu, a longtime critic of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi party ruling Tanzania since independence in 1961, has been jailed while waiting for the outcome of a trial for treason -- a charge that carries a potential death sentence.

Having survived an assassination attempt in 2017, Lissu was arrested in April 2025 on accusations that he incited the public to boycott that year's elections.

The 58-year-old Chadema party leader, who returned to Tanzania in 2023 following years of exile, has been in detention since.

The verdict in the treason trial, which has been widely criticised by the opposition and human rights groups as politically motivated, is expected on November 6.

According to Chadema, the High Court of Tanzania ruled last week that his constitutional right to private meetings with his defence counsel had been infringed.

But the party accused authorities on Saturday of failing to respect that ruling.

"Starting Monday, 26th October 2026, Lissu is commencing a hunger strike," Chadema's legal adviser, Rugemeleza Nshala, said at a news conference.

"Because the prison administration openly defies judicial orders, our chairman Lissu has expressed legitimate fear for his life and personal safety," said Chadema's Secretary General, John Mnyika.

"He questions whether food supplied by officials who knowingly break the law can be trusted," Mnyika added.

Lissu had called for a boycott of Tanzania's November 2025 elections if reforms to how they were conducted were carried out, which he says does not amount to treason.

Ahead of the vote, President Samia Suluhu Hassan's government launched a sweeping crackdown on the opposition, triggering some of the biggest protests ever seen in the country.

The opposition and rights activists have accused the security forces of killing thousands in the ensuing crackdown.

The government says more than 500 people were killed during the election unrest, without saying who was responsible.

Chadema was barred from competing in the election, in which Hassan went on to win 98 per cent of the vote.