By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Lawyers representing incarcerated Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu on Friday filed a complaint before the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, aiming to attract international pressure for his release.
According to Lissu’s international lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, the confidential complaint to the UN Working Group is part of a wider pressure campaign. The group issues opinions and advisory but has no enforcement power.
Lissu, leader of Tanzania’s main opposition party, CHADEMA, came second in the East African country’s presidential election in 2020. He was arrested last month and charged with treason, an offence punishable by death, in connection with his comment calling on supporters not to participate in the October election until reforms are carried out in the electoral body.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who had been lauded for easing political repression put in place by her predecessor, has also faced criticism over unexplained abductions of opposition figures and government critics in recent months.
Hassan, who is also in the presidential race, has promised to carry out investigations into the abductions, claiming that her administration respects human rights.
Earlier in the month, the European Parliament adopted a resolution denouncing Lissu’s arrest as politically motivated, and his international lawyer said he would petition the US Departments to impose sanctions.
“Right down to prosecutors, judges, police – all the people that are involved in this false show trial had better be aware that they should protect their US assets,” Amsterdam told Reuters.
Lissu, who was shot 16 times in a 2017 attack for which no one has ever been charged, is expected in court on Monday.
Last week, Tanzanian authorities had detained a Kenyan and a Ugandan rights activist who had come to attend the hearing, a case that attracted a diplomatic row.
