DAR ES SALAM: A key figure in Tanzania\u2019s main opposition party was arrested Wednesday, the latest detention in a rolling crackdown on dissenting voices ahead of next week\u2019s general election.<\/p>\n
President Samia Suluhu Hassan is seeking election on October 29, after becoming leader following the death of authoritarian predecessor John Magafuli in 2021.<\/p>\n
While her arrival was welcomed with optimism as she eased restrictions, rights groups have since expressed sharp criticism over her government\u2019s attacks on the opposition and critical voices.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday John Heche, deputy chairperson of opposition party Chadema, became the latest member of his party to be arrested after officers detained him outside the High Court in economic capital Dar es Salaam.<\/p>\n
He was present to attend the ongoing treason trial of party leader Tundu Lissu, detained in April and potentially facing the death penalty.<\/p>\n
Police have not disclosed the reasons for Heche\u2019s detention.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have not been informed of the reasons for his arrest,\u201d Chadema\u2019s secretary general John Mnyika told reporters, accusing police of attempting to detain leading opposition figures until after the polls.<\/p>\n
He said Heche had been taken to the central police station.<\/p>\n
It follows officers confiscating his passport over the weekend after he attempted to attend the funeral of Kenyan politician Raila Odinga in the neighboring country.<\/p>\n
In a statement following the incident, the immigration department said Heche had attempted to illegally cross the border \u2014 allegations dismissed by Chadema.<\/p>\n
Rather, Mnyika alleged the arrest was part of a \u201ccontinued scheme against Chadema leaders,\u201d adding several senior officials feared they might also be detained.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have for some time been aware of plans to arrest our leaders and detain us until after elections,\u201d he said, saying officers were using excuses to detain opposition figures.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am free for now, but I cannot be sure I won\u2019t be arrested soon,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The arrest came shortly as Amnesty International warned of increased rights violations, including the abductions of senior opposition officials, and a clampdown on civic space.<\/p>\n
The Chadema party has been excluded from the elections for refusing to sign the Electoral Code of Conduct.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DAR ES SALAM: A key figure in Tanzania\u2019s main opposition party was arrested Wednesday, the latest detention in a rolling crackdown on dissenting voices ahead of next week\u2019s general election. President Samia Suluhu Hassan is seeking election on October 29, after becoming leader following the death of authoritarian predecessor John Magafuli in 2021. While her …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":88574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88575,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88563\/revisions\/88575"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}