Tanzania’s jailed opposition leader Lissu plans hunger strike over denied legal access

Tanzania’s jailed opposition leader Tundu Lissu will begin a hunger strike Monday to protest prison authorities’ alleged refusal to allow court-ordered private consultations with his lawyers, his lawyer said Saturday.

Lissu, who survived being shot 16 times in a 2017 assassination attempt, faces a treason charge carrying a possible death sentence. The leader of Chadema, Tanzania’s main opposition party, has been detained for more than 18 months, with a final judgment scheduled for Nov. 6.

The lawyer, Rugemeleza Nshala, said Lissu told him of the planned strike during a meeting in prison. Speaking to journalists in Dar es Salaam, Nshala said he warned Lissu about the implications for his health because he relies on medication.

Nshala said Lissu was prepared to stop taking his medication.

“I am ready to face the consequences, but I will fight for the rule of law,” Nshala quoted him as saying.

Nshala said authorities had denied private consultations despite a court order and, on some occasions, barred access to Lissu altogether.

Lissu questioned why court decisions keeping him in custody were enforced while an order protecting his access to lawyers was allegedly disregarded, Nshala said.

Prison authorities, police and the government had issued no public statements on the planned hunger strike.

Lissu was arrested April 9, 2025, after addressing a rally calling for electoral reforms ahead of that year’s general election. He was charged with treason the following day .

He has spent periods in exile since the assassination attempt, citing threats to his life. In May 2025, he went on hunger strike to protest being required to appear in court remotely rather than in person.

Presidential candidates from Tanzania’s two main opposition parties were barred from contesting the October 2025 election, which triggered protests and deadly violence.

An inquiry into the election violence found in April that at least 518 people died . Mohamed Chande Othman, who chaired the inquiry, said the toll was likely higher because some families buried relatives without taking their bodies to morgues.

The United Nations had earlier called for an investigation into the killings and reports that police removed bodies from mortuaries to undisclosed locations. Chadema put the death toll at about 2,000, a figure the U.N. said it could not verify amid insecurity and an internet shutdown during the election period.