NAIROBI: Tanzanian authorities charged hundreds of people with treason over demonstrations around disputed polls last month, in a major escalation of political tension as the country reels from violence in which an unknown number of people were killed.
In addition to dozens criminally charged a day earlier in Dar es Salaam, dozens more face similar treason charges elsewhere in the East African country according to numerous charge sheets that became publicly available Saturday.
Police also issued arrest warrants for some of the top opposition officials who had not yet been jailed. They include Brenda Rupia, communications director for the Chadema opposition group, as well as John Mnyika, its secretary-general.
Chadema is Tanzania’s leading opposition party. Its leader, Tundu Lissu, has been jailed for several months and also faces treason charges after he urged electoral reforms ahead of voting on Oct. 29.
Authorities face questions over the death toll after security forces tried to quell riots and opposition protests before and after the vote. Chadema has claimed that more than 1,000 people were killed and that security forces were trying to hide the scale of the deaths by secretly disposing of the bodies. The Catholic Church in Tanzania has said that hundreds were likely killed.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who automatically took office as vice president in 2021 after the death of her predecessor, took more than 97 percent of the vote, according to an official tally. She faced 16 candidates from smaller parties after Lissu and Luhaga Mpina, of the ACT-Wazalendo party, were barred from running.
Rights groups described a climate of repression ahead of voting. There were enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings, according to Amnesty International and others. Tanzania’s government denies the allegations.
The African Union said this week that its observers had concluded the election “did not comply with AU principles, normative frameworks, and other international obligations and standards for democratic elections.”
AU observers reported ballot stuffing at several polling stations and cases where voters were issued multiple ballots. The environment surrounding the election was “not conducive to peaceful conduct and acceptance of electoral outcomes,” the statement said.
Single-party rule has been the norm in Tanzania since the advent of multi-party politics in 1992.
But government critics point out that previous leaders tolerated opposition while maintaining a firm grip on power, whereas Hassan is accused of leading with an authoritarian style that defies youth-led democracy movements elsewhere in the region.
A version of the governing Chama cha Mapinduzi party, which maintains ties with the Communist Party of China, has ruled Tanzania since its independence from Britain in 1961, a streak that Hassan extended with her victory.
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Tanzania charges hundreds with treason and issues arrest warrants for more opposition figures
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Tanzania charges hundreds with treason and issues arrest warrants for more opposition figures
- In addition to dozens criminally charged a day earlier in Dar es Salaam, dozens more face similar treason charges elsewhere in the East African country according to numerous charge sheets that became publicly available
ICE agents can’t make warrantless arrests in Oregon unless there’s a risk of escape, US judge rules
- US District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai issued a preliminary injunction in a proposed class-action lawsuit
- Case targets Department of Homeland Security’s practice of arresting immigrants they happen to come across
PORTLAND, Oregon: US immigration agents in Oregon must stop arresting people without warrants unless there’s a likelihood of escape, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
US District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai issued a preliminary injunction in a proposed class-action lawsuit targeting the Department of Homeland Security’s practice of arresting immigrants they happen to come across while conducting ramped-up enforcement operations — which critics have described as “arrest first, justify later.”
The department, which is named as a defendant in the suit, did not immediately comment in response to a request from The Associated Press.
Similar actions, including immigration agents entering private property without a warrant issued by a court, have drawn concern from civil rights groups across the country amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
Courts in Colorado and Washington, D.C., have issued rulings like Kasubhai’s, and the government has appealed them.
In a memo last week, Todd Lyons, the acting head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, emphasized that agents should not make an arrest without an administrative arrest warrant issued by a supervisor unless they develop probable cause to believe that the person is in the US illegally and likely to escape from the scene before a warrant can be obtained.
But the judge heard evidence that agents in Oregon have arrested people in immigration sweeps without such warrants or determining escape was likely.
The daylong hearing included testimony from one plaintiff, Victor Cruz Gamez, a 56-year-old grandfather who has been in the US since 1999. He told the court he was arrested and held in an immigration detention facility for three weeks even though he has a valid work permit and a pending visa application.
Cruz Gamez testified that he was driving home from work in October when he was pulled over by immigration agents. Despite showing his driver’s license and work permit, he was detained and taken to the ICE building in Portland before being sent to an immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington. After three weeks there, he was set to be deported until a lawyer secured his release, he said.
He teared up as he recounted how the arrest impacted his family, especially his wife. Once he was home they did not open the door for three weeks out of fear and one of his grandchildren did not want to go to school, he said through a Spanish interpreter.
Afterward a lawyer for the federal government told Cruz Gamez he was sorry about what he went through and the effect it had on them.
Kasubhai said the actions of agents in Oregon — including drawing guns on people while detaining them for civil immigration violations — have been “violent and brutal,” and he was concerned about the administration denying due process to those swept up in immigration raids.
“Due process calls for those who have great power to exercise great restraint,” he said. “That is the bedrock of a democratic republic founded on this great constitution. I think we’re losing that.”
The lawsuit was brought by the nonprofit law firm Innovation Law Lab, whose executive director, Stephen Manning, said he was confident the case will be a “catalyst for change here in Oregon.”
“That is fundamentally what this case is about: asking the government to follow the law,” he said during the hearing.
The preliminary injunction will remain in effect while the lawsuit proceeds.
US District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai issued a preliminary injunction in a proposed class-action lawsuit targeting the Department of Homeland Security’s practice of arresting immigrants they happen to come across while conducting ramped-up enforcement operations — which critics have described as “arrest first, justify later.”
The department, which is named as a defendant in the suit, did not immediately comment in response to a request from The Associated Press.
Similar actions, including immigration agents entering private property without a warrant issued by a court, have drawn concern from civil rights groups across the country amid President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
Courts in Colorado and Washington, D.C., have issued rulings like Kasubhai’s, and the government has appealed them.
In a memo last week, Todd Lyons, the acting head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, emphasized that agents should not make an arrest without an administrative arrest warrant issued by a supervisor unless they develop probable cause to believe that the person is in the US illegally and likely to escape from the scene before a warrant can be obtained.
But the judge heard evidence that agents in Oregon have arrested people in immigration sweeps without such warrants or determining escape was likely.
The daylong hearing included testimony from one plaintiff, Victor Cruz Gamez, a 56-year-old grandfather who has been in the US since 1999. He told the court he was arrested and held in an immigration detention facility for three weeks even though he has a valid work permit and a pending visa application.
Cruz Gamez testified that he was driving home from work in October when he was pulled over by immigration agents. Despite showing his driver’s license and work permit, he was detained and taken to the ICE building in Portland before being sent to an immigration detention center in Tacoma, Washington. After three weeks there, he was set to be deported until a lawyer secured his release, he said.
He teared up as he recounted how the arrest impacted his family, especially his wife. Once he was home they did not open the door for three weeks out of fear and one of his grandchildren did not want to go to school, he said through a Spanish interpreter.
Afterward a lawyer for the federal government told Cruz Gamez he was sorry about what he went through and the effect it had on them.
Kasubhai said the actions of agents in Oregon — including drawing guns on people while detaining them for civil immigration violations — have been “violent and brutal,” and he was concerned about the administration denying due process to those swept up in immigration raids.
“Due process calls for those who have great power to exercise great restraint,” he said. “That is the bedrock of a democratic republic founded on this great constitution. I think we’re losing that.”
The lawsuit was brought by the nonprofit law firm Innovation Law Lab, whose executive director, Stephen Manning, said he was confident the case will be a “catalyst for change here in Oregon.”
“That is fundamentally what this case is about: asking the government to follow the law,” he said during the hearing.
The preliminary injunction will remain in effect while the lawsuit proceeds.
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