Tanzanian opposition leader seeks UN support

Lawyers for Tanzania's jailed opposition leader Tundu Lissu filed a complaint on Friday to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in a bid to ramp up international pressure for his release, reports RFI. The European Parliament recently adopted a resolution denouncing Lissu's arrest as politically motivated, and Lissu's international lawyer, Robert Amsterdam, said the confidential complaint to the UN working group, which issues opinions but has no enforcement power, was part of a wider pressure campaign. Amsterdam said he would petition the US State Department 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. In response to the European Parliament resolution, Tanzania's Foreign Ministry said outside criticisms about the case were based on ‘incomplete or partisan information’. The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Lissu, who was shot 16 times in a 2017 attack for which no one has ever been charged, was expected to appear in court today. Before he appeared in court last week, authorities detained a Kenyan and a Ugandan rights activist who had come to attend the hearing. They were abandoned several days later near the borders of their home countries, and the Kenyan activist, Boniface Mwangi, said both were badly tortured while in custody. Tanzanian officials have not responded to requests for comment about the allegation. Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan has warned outsiders against ‘invading and interfering in our affairs’.

Kenya's President William Ruto has publicly apologised to Tanzania following days of tension between the neighbouring countries, reports BBC News. Some Kenyans on social media have been targeting Hassan following the recent detention and deportation of prominent East African activists. Angry Tanzanian MPs on Monday accused Kenyans of cyberbullying and disrespecting Tanzanian sovereignty and ‘meddling in domestic affairs’. On Wednesday, Ruto appeared to extend an olive branch to Tanzania. ‘To our neighbours from Tanzania, if we have wronged you in any way, forgive us,’ he said. Ruto also apologised to young Kenyans who have been critical of his administration since the deadly anti-tax protesters last June. Some of them have dismissed Ruto's apology, insisting that the President should resign. Ruto made the remarks in response to a call by visiting American preacher Rickey Allen Bolden, who urged leaders to pursue reconciliation. The diplomatic row was triggered by the deportation of activists who had travelled to Tanzania to attend the trial of opposition leader Tundu Lissu.

Among them were Mwangi and Agather Atuhaire from Uganda. The two said they were held incommunicado for several days and tortured, before they were left at the border by Tanzanian security forces, sparking widespread condemnation across the region and from international rights groups. Tanzania is yet to comment on the torture claims, according to BBC News. Both Kenya and Uganda had formally protested against the detention of the activists, accusing the Tanzanian authorities of denying consular access despite repeated requests. The alleged mistreatment of the activists triggered an online war, with social media users from Kenya and Tanzania clashing over the claims. In a heated debate on Monday, Tanzanian parliamentarians expressed outrage over the young Kenyans trolling Samia. The MPs said Hassan had every right to defend Tanzania's national interests. The legislators' comments angered some Kenyans who hit back by sharing lawmakers' contacts and flooding their phones with messages to express their disapproval.