The High Court of Tanzania in Dar es Salaam sentenced Tundu Lissu to four years in prison for incitement.^[1] A three-judge panel led by Judge Dunstan Ndunguru delivered the sentence.^[2] Lissu leads the Chadema opposition party.^[3] Acquitted of what he was charged with Lissu was acquitted of the original charge of treason.^[4] The court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove he had the intent treason requires.^[5] The treason proceedings against him are closed.^[6] Convicted of something else The conviction was for incitement, under Section 390 of the Penal Code.^[7] The court reached it through Section 319 of the Criminal Procedure Act, which allows a conviction for a lesser offence that was not charged.^[8] Put together, the two rulings mean the state lost the case it brought and won one it had not filed. What the court found The court found that Lissu made statements urging disruption of the 2025 general election.^[9] Prosecution witnesses said his statements influenced actions that disrupted it.^[10] Lissu's answer Lissu described the trial as political persecution.^[11] British and European Union lawmakers criticised the treason case against him.^[12] The man and the charge Lissu survived an assassination attempt in 2017 in which he was shot 16 times.^[13] This was the third high-profile treason trial in the history of mainland Tanzania.^[14] Security was heightened across Dar es Salaam before the verdict.^[15]