Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu will go on trial on Monday as his trial for alleged treason resumes, weeks before the East African country holds an election.
Lissu, who came second in the last presidential poll in 2020, was arrested in April and charged with treason over what prosecutors said was a speech calling on the public to rebel and disrupt the elections scheduled to take place later this month.
The court has banned live coverage of the proceedings on a request by the state prosecutor, who said it was necessary to conceal the identities of their witnesses.
Lissu is yet to offer a plea in the treason case, but his lawyer has said the charges are politically motivated.
He had vowed to boycott the upcoming elections unless significant reforms were made to an electoral process, which he said favours the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM). The CCM has been in power since independence in 1961.
Tanzania’s electoral commission barred Lissu’s CHADEMA party from participating in the October 28 elections after the party failed to sign a code of conduct document.
The commission also disqualified the leader of Tanzania’s second-largest opposition party from running for president, leaving only candidates from smaller parties to challenge Hassan, who came to power in 2021 following the death of her predecessor John Magafuli.