Four years behind bars. That is what a Tanzanian court handed opposition leader Tundu Lissu on Friday, convicting him of inciting unrest even as it cleared him of the more serious treason charge that had carried the possibility of a death sentence.
The case did not emerge in a vacuum. Lissu's conviction follows a disputed presidential election and a deadly government crackdown on protesters, a sequence of events that has drawn sharp international condemnation and put a spotlight on the state of political freedom in Tanzania.
The treason acquittal may feel like a partial relief, but Lissu is still looking at four years away from public life at one of the most charged moments in his country's political history. The question now is what this verdict means for the opposition movement he leaves behind.
Originally published by AllAfrica.