A TANZANIAN court has charged at least 240 people with treason following last week’s deadly election protests.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner of the election with 98% of the vote, but the opposition – which was barred from contesting – denounced the poll as a sham.
Security forces clashed with those protesting against the vote and, according to various sources, hundreds were killed. The authorities have downplayed the scale of the violence and maintained the election was free and fair.
Many people were arrested and have now been charged with treason at a court in the economic capital of Dar es Salaam. They were not been asked to enter a plea in court.
According to a charge sheet seen by the BBC, the defendants are accused of inciting demonstrations with the intention of obstructing the election.
The defendants could receive the death penalty if found guilty. However, in Tanzania, the majority of those sentenced to death eventually have their sentence commuted to life in jail.
The East African nation’s last execution took place in the 1990s.
Among those charged on Friday was prominent Tanzanian businesswoman Jenifer Jovin.
She has been accused of encouraging protesters to buy gas masks in order to protect themselves from the police’s tear gas.
The defendants also include social media influencers. The court has been adjourned until 19 November.
During her inauguration speech, President Samia condemned the violence and also blamed foreigners for stoking the unrest.
It has left many Kenyans in Tanzania fearful for their safety after being reportedly targeted in the brutal crackdown – and has prompted Kenya’s Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi to ask his Tanzanian counterpart that their safety be guaranteed.
During a phone conversation, Mudavadi said he had told his Tanzanian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo that concerns would be “addressed through the established diplomatic and consular channels”.
But he reaffirmed “the importance of safeguarding the rights, safety, and dignity” of Kenyans living in Tanzania.
In May, Mudavadi had said that about 250,000 Kenyans lived, worked or did business in Tanzania.
Earlier a Tanzanian police spokesman said the country had intelligence that some foreigners had crossed the border through illegal points “with the intention to commit crimes, including causing unrest”.
Several families in Kenya have expressed concern for the safety of their relatives in Tanzania, following reports that some Kenyans have been killed, injured, or detained, while others are nursing injuries allegedly inflicted by Tanzanian security officers.
John Ogutu, a Kenyan teacher working in Dar es Salaam, was shot dead by police while on his way to buy food, his older sister told the BBC.
But rights groups say his body can not be traced for repatriation and burial.