Tanzanian Political Prisoner
Tundu Lissu · CHADEMA Vice Chairman
Tundu Lissu is Vice Chairman of Tanzania's main opposition party, CHADEMA (Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo), and has served as the country's leading advocate for constitutional reform, free elections, and the rule of law.
In 2017, he survived an assassination attempt in which he was shot sixteen times outside his home in Dodoma. After three years of medical exile in Belgium, he returned to Tanzania to contest the 2020 presidential election — only to be met with renewed persecution, arbitrary arrests, and politically motivated sedition charges that continue to this day.
As Tanzania approaches the crucial 2025 general election, President Hassan's government has escalated its crackdown on CHADEMA, arresting hundreds of members, orchestrating forced disappearances, and prosecuting Lissu on charges condemned by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as blatantly political.
Full Biography
Flanked by armed court officers in green berets, Tundu Lissu appeared in a Tanzanian courtroom wearing a white shirt reading "No Reforms, No Election." In that single image, captured by AFP photographer, the entire story of Tanzania's democratic crisis is told.
Tanzania's general election is approaching. The ruling CCM party has never lost power since independence. President Hassan has made clear she intends to run again. And the opposition leader she fears most is facing criminal trial. What is at stake in October 2025 — and what must the international community do right now?
Amsterdam & Partners LLP has filed a formal submission to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention regarding the repeated arbitrary arrests and ongoing prosecution of Tundu Lissu on politically motivated sedition charges. The submission argues that Tanzania's conduct violates multiple provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
On October 24, 2024, Amsterdam & Partners LLP officially filed a comprehensive 15-page complaint to the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Secretariat, documenting systematic human rights violations by President Samia Suluhu Hassan's government and calling for Tanzania's provisional suspension from the Commonwealth.
Between August 11–12, 2024, Tanzanian security forces arrested 375 CHADEMA party members in what Amnesty International called "a blatant assault on Tanzanian democracy." Tundu Lissu, Freeman Mbowe, and dozens of senior party figures were detained without access to legal counsel. This is a detailed account of what happened — and why it matters.
The campaign against Tundu Lissu and CHADEMA is systematic, sustained, and sanctioned at the highest levels of the Tanzanian state.
Amsterdam & Partners LLP — representing CHADEMA, Tundu Lissu, and the democratic aspirations of the Tanzanian people — has pursued every available international legal avenue to expose and hold accountable the Hassan regime's systematic violations of human rights and democratic norms.
The firm has filed submissions to the Commonwealth Secretariat, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the Inter-Parliamentary Union, documenting in exhaustive detail the pattern of state-sponsored repression.
Amsterdam & Partners LLP is an international human rights law firm specialising in high-profile cases involving state persecution, democratic backsliding, and the violation of fundamental freedoms.
The firm represents clients including heads of state, opposition leaders, and persecuted minorities across Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America.
Robert Amsterdam leads the international legal campaign for Tundu Lissu and has called on the international community to impose Magnitsky-style targeted sanctions against those individuals responsible for orchestrating electoral fraud and political persecution in Tanzania.
Join the international campaign demanding the immediate release and protection of Tanzania's leading opposition figure and democracy advocate.