A court in Tanzania charged opposition party leader Tundu Lissu with treason on Thursday for comments he made last week calling on the public to obstruct elections due later this year.
Lissu, the chairman of the main opposition party CHADEMA and runner-up in the 2020 presidential election, was arrested on Wednesday after a rally in the southwestern region of Ruvuma.
At a court appearance in the commercial Dar es Salaam, Lissu was not allowed to enter a plea on the treason charge. He pleaded not guilty to a separate charge of publishing false information.
The charge will bring fresh scrutiny to President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s human rights record as she bids for re-election.
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 a series of arrests and unexplained abductions and killings of political opponents.
Hassan has said the government is committed to respecting human rights and she ordered an investigation into reported abductions last year.
Lissu has been holding rallies across the country as part of his party’s “No reforms, no election” campaign.
Lissu was elected chair of his party in January, defeating its longtime leader Freeman Mbowe.
In November he was detained ahead of local elections, which were overwhelmingly won by the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
Chadema said the elections had been manipulated, with Mbowe saying that “the results were not credible at all”.
The party has said it will petition the High Court to demand reforms ahead of a national election this year.
Suluhu Hassan, who ascended from the vice presidency in 2021, was initially feted for easing restrictions that previous leader John Magufuli had imposed on the opposition and the media in the country of around 67 million people.
But rights groups and Western governments have criticised what they see as renewed repression, with the arrests of Chadema politicians as well as abductions and murders of opposition figures.
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