Key Tanzanian Opposition Leader To Face Terror Charges: Party

Dar es Salaam, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jul, 2021 ) :Tanzania's main opposition party said Thursday that its leader and other members could be charged with terrorism after being arrested in a sweeping midnight raid that has drawn international concern.

Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe and 10 other members were rounded up in the dead of night Wednesday in a crackdown denounced as a throwback to the oppressive rule of the country's late leader.

Police searched Mbowe's house in Dar es Salaam and seized his laptop and other devices from family members before transferring the Chadema chairman to the city's central prison, the party said Thursday.

"We have received shocking information that Mbowe will be jointly charged with terrorism alongside the other suspects being held in prison in Dar es Salaam jail," it said on Twitter.

Mbowe and the other Chadema officials were arrested in the Lake Victoria port city of Mwanza ahead of a planned public forum to demand constitutional reform.

Their detention comes four months after Tanzania's first female President Samia Suluhu Hassan took office following the sudden death in March of John Magufuli, under whose autocratic rule such clampdowns on the opposition were frequent.

In April, Hassan had reached out to the opposition and vowed to defend democracy and basic freedoms.

There were high hopes Tanzania would be steered away from the heavy-handed and uncompromising leadership of her predecessor.