Lissu’s lawyer Rugemeleza Nshala mentioned the costs towards his shopper had been politically pushed.
A court docket in Tanzania has charged opposition get together chief Tundu Lissu with treason after his arrest at a public rally during which he known as for electoral reforms.
The fees towards the chairman of the Chadema get together will carry new scrutiny to President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s bid for re-election in October as critics accuse the federal government of cracking down on the opposition.
The opposition chief was compelled right into a police car late on Wednesday after he had completed addressing a public rally in Mbinga in southern Tanzania.
“I got here right here, we held a peaceable assembly and now I perceive the techniques of the police. We are actually clear on the state of affairs. I can’t enter the car. There isn’t any want for that. We’ll sleep right here. What’s the downside?” Lissu requested the police, moments earlier than his supporters had been tear-gassed.
Lissu on Thursday afternoon arrived on the Kisutu Resident Justice of the Peace’s Court docket within the business capital Dar-es-Salaam, showing in excessive spirits and within the firm of his attorneys and opposition get together politicians.
He was, nonetheless, not allowed to enter a plea on the treason cost.
He did plead not responsible to a separate cost of publishing false info and is due again in court docket on April 24.
Lissu’s lawyer Rugemeleza Nshala mentioned the costs towards his shopper had been politically pushed.
“You can not separate these prices from politics,” Nshala advised the Reuters information company.
“He was doing campaigns to coach Chadema supporters, however they’ve turned it into prices.”
Based on the cost sheet, Lissu, who survived being shot 16 instances in an assassination try in 2017, made the feedback in query in Dar-es-Salaam on April 3.
The cost sheet quoted him as saying: “It’s true we are saying we’ll stop the election. We’ll encourage insurrection. That’s the approach to get change.”
“So we’re going to spoil this election. We’re going to actually disrupt. … We’re going to spoil it very badly,” the cost sheet accused him of claiming.
Hassan gained plaudits after coming to energy in 2021 for relieving repression of political opponents and censorship of the media that proliferated beneath her predecessor John Magufuli, who died in workplace.
However she has confronted mounting criticism from human rights activists over a sequence of arrests and unexplained abductions and killings of political opponents.
Hassan has mentioned the federal government is dedicated to respecting human rights, and she or he ordered an investigation into reported abductions final 12 months.
