Mr
Lissu, who is also the president of the Tanganyika Law Society (TLS),
was charged yesterday with uttering abusive words against the
government. He denied the charge.
Resident Magistrate Wilbard Mashauri ordered the accused to remain in custody until July 27 when he will give the ruling following a long legal battle between prosecution and defence counsels regarding the legality of the accused to be granted bail.
State attorney Mutalemwa Kishenyi
alleged that, the accused used abusive language to portray President
John Magufuli’s government as discriminative and that it was being run
on the basis of nepotism and religious affiliation.
The
prosecution believes that the words are likely to stir up ethnic
hatred. According to the charge sheet, Mr Lissu uttered the abusive
words to wit top government leaders were being picked from President
Magufuli’s family and urged Tanzanians to fearlessly reject the alleged
phenomena.
The prosecution also alleged that the
outspoken opposition MP urged development partners to cut their
financial, economic and diplomatic support to cut the President
Magufuli’s government because Tanzania no longer observes the rule of
law, likening it with the oppressive apartheid government of South
Africa.
After charges were read, the prosecution asked
the court not to grant the accused bail on several grounds, including
the accused’s habit of the repeatedly uttering seditious words when he
is out on bail.
The prosecution argued that the accused
faced several cases of seditious nature and has been doing such
offences as he is out on bail.
The defence team led by
advocate Ms Fatuma Karume and Mr Peter Kibatala strongly objected to the
request, arguing bail is the basic right to the accused.
They further argued that the charges against their client were still allegations that are yet to be proved by the court.
