One person has been confirmed dead during police confrontation with Tundu Lissu’s supporters when the opposition leader was supposed to appear before the Kisutu residence court. Other people were seriously injured as a result of police brutality.

Tanzania’s opposition party, Chadema, has condemned the arrest of thirteen of its members and the violent dispersal of its supporters on Thursday near a court in Dar es Salaam, where the party’s leader, Tundu Lissu, was due to appear in court on treason charges.

The party’s chairman faces the death penalty for the offence, and his political party will not participate in the upcoming elections in October 2025 because it did not sign a new electoral code of conduct, which Chadema opposes.

The party’s supporters condemn the authoritarian actions by the government of Samia Suluhu Hassan, the president of Tanzania, and the tactics of Chama Cha Mapinzi (CCM) to stay in power.

Hundreds of people gathered near a court in Tanzania’s Dar es Salaam on Thursday, April 24, as access to the building itself was blocked by a large number of police officers. Chadema supporters and party leaders were arrested and beaten as they tried to get to the room where the case was to be heard.

Thirteen political officials were arrested, including the vice president and the secretary general. The party claims that nine of them were taken to the forest where the body of one of the party’s rivals was found in September last year. Chadema claims a seriously injured man

As a result, opposition leader Tundu Lissu, who was arrested on April 9, 2025, and charged with treason, refused to appear in court in Dar es Salaam on Thursday. Since his arrest, Chadema has condemned the difficulties faced by his relatives and lawyers in visiting him.