More than 200 people have been charged with treason in Tanzania following the protests that broke out in the country after the October 29 general elections.

On Friday, at least a hundred people turned up at the Kisutu Court of First Instance in the capital Dar es Salaam, according to the France-Presse news agency (AFP), citing sources from the Tanzanian Public Prosecutor's Office

The people were charged with treason and conspiracy to commit treason in three separate cases, lawyer Peter Kibatala told AFP outside court on Friday evening.

Judicial sources at the Kisutu court, quoted by RTP, told AFP that they were aware of at least 240 charges.

According to the charges, seen by AFP, most of the defendants are suspected of trying, on October 29, to “obstruct the 2025 general [presidential and parliamentary] elections in order to intimidate the executive branch”.

The demonstrations, which in some cases were violent, broke out on election day and lasted for three days in several cities across the country. They were suppressed by the police using tear gas and live ammunition, while the government imposed a curfew and interrupted internet access throughout the country.

At least 150 people died in Dar es Salaam during the mobilizations, health service sources told EFE on 31 October.

The main opposition movement, the Party of Democracy and Progress (Chadema, in Swahili), has accused the security forces of killing up to a thousand people in different parts of the country, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday.

The Tanganyika Bar Association (mainland Tanzania) confirmed on Wednesday that it has started distributing forms to the population to register their missing or allegedly dead relatives, in the face of the government's refusal to hand over the bodies.

Meanwhile, Chadema denounced that the police have been collecting corpses from hospitals in order to “erase evidence and statistics”. Also this week, Chadema's vice-president, John Heche, who was in detention, was charged with terrorism.

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan was inaugurated on Monday for a five-year term after the Independent National Electoral Commission declared her the winner of the elections on Saturday, with 97.66% of the votes, in a vote in which the two main opponents were excluded.

Hassan became president in 2021 following the sudden death of his predecessor, John Magufuli, whose vice-president he was.