The United Republic of Tanzania has scrapped off the sedition case against the country’s 2020 Presidential Candidate, Tundu Lissu, currently in Exile.
The Charismatic Politician, Lawyer and Activist, also ran for Tanzanian Presidency during the country’s previous General Elections of 2020.
Tundu Lissu, currently in Belgium, together with three other accused, were facing five counts including sedition, in reflect to the country’s Newspaper Act of 2002.
Others facing the charges include editors of a kiswahili tabloid, Mawio Newspaper Simon Mkina and writer Jabir Idrisa as well as the director of Jamana Printers Ismael Mehboob.
The charges under court case 208/2016 have just been dropped by the Director of Public Prosecution, stating that ‘The Republic had no interest in pursuing it further.’
Previously, the charges alleged that between January 12 and 14 in 2016 in Dar es Salaam, Jabir Idris, Simon Mkina the Mawio writers and Tundu Lissu a politician, lawyer and activist, published a seditious story.
The Kiswahili story ran under bold headlines, ‘Machafuko yaja Zanzibar‘ (Violence coming to Zanzibar).
Mehboob of Jamana Printers was linked in the case for using his Ilala-based, printing facilities to publish the weekly paper which allegedly carried the seditious story targeting to fuel discord among the people of Zanzibar.
Lissu was later to be gunned by unknown people on the 7th of September 2017, in Dodoma and had to be rushed to Belgium for treatment via Nairobi.
After that it became almost impossible to him to attend the court sessions.
Lissu is the Vice Chairperson for the main opposition party, the Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA).
Meanwhile the party’s Chairperson, Freeman Mbowe, is facing other court charges on alleged terrorism.
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