Tanzania opposition asks telecoms firm to respond to data-sharing accusation (updated)
25/09/2024 16:21
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Lissu plans to sue Tigo and Tanzanian government
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Millicom disciplined individuals involved in data sharing
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President Hassan pledged to lift restrictions on critics
(Adds quotes from opposition leader Lissu, paragraphs 4 and 5)
NAIROBI, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Tanzania's main opposition
party has called for telecoms firm Tigo to respond to a former
employee's accusation that the company helped the government
track the location of an opponent who was later targeted in a
failed assassination attempt.
A former worker at Tigo's parent company, Millicom MICC.F ,
told a British court this month that Tigo had shared mobile
phone data with the government showing the location of
opposition lawmaker Tundu Lissu in the weeks before the attack.
Lissu's car was sprayed with bullets in September 2017 by
unknown assailants, according to court filings seen by Reuters.
"I have informed (lawyer) Bob Amsterdam today to start a
case against Tigo and the government of Tanzania,” Lissu told a
news conference in Dar es Salaam, adding that he does not trust
local courts to handle the case.
“We will force Tigo to tell us who they were communicating
with. Who from the government asked them to track me 24 hours.
They have to tell us names."
In its own court filings this month, Millicom said it had
learned in late August or early September 2017 of concerns
"about a local politician’s mobile phone data being passed to a
government agency".
It said the individuals involved were disciplined and
additional training was provided to Millicom subsidiaries about
how to respond to requests for company data.
The company denied allegations in a lawsuit filed by the
former employee, Michael Clifford, that Clifford had been
dismissed for raising concerns about the tracking of Lissu's
location data.
The court filings were first reported on Tuesday by British
newspaper The Guardian. Spokespeople for Millicom and the
Tanzanian government did not respond to requests for comment by
Reuters on Wednesday.
Tanzania's then-president John Magufuli condemned the attack
on Lissu in 2017. No one has been arrested or charged in
connection with it.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan, who succeeded Magufuli
after his death in 2021, pledged to lift restrictions on
government critics imposed by Magufuli, but rights groups say
authorities have been targeting opponents before local elections
in December. The government has denied the accusations.
On Monday, Lissu was among several opposition leaders briefly
arrested by police before they could march to protest against
what they said were killings and abductions of government
critics.
(Reporting by Hereward Holland in Nairobi and Sam Tobin in
London; Editing by George Obulutsa, Aaron Ross and Timothy
Heritage)
((mailto:hereward.holland@thomsonreuters.com; +254 20 499 1232;
Reuters Messaging:
rm://hereward.holland.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net/))