The Kisutu Resident Magistrate Court in Tanzania convicted nine Chadema leaders and legislators Tuesday of making “seditious statements.”

Principal Resident Magistrate Thomas Simba was convinced that they were unlawfully assembled, rioting and making seditious statements. The Chadema party is an opposition party to Tanzania’s Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, which is led by the country’s president John Magufuli. The accused, including the Chadema party chairman Freeman Mbowe, must pay 350m Tanzanian shillings (USD $152,000) or serve five-month prison sentences.

The charges against the Chadema leaders stemmed from an early 2018 rally in Dar es Salaam that ended with police firing guns to break up the group. A young man who was not involved in the rally was killed by a stray bullet. Magufuli has banned opposition demonstrations, though he was elected in 2015 as a “corruption fighting ‘man of the people.'”

Decisions like this may incite fears that the Tanzanian government will silence opposition, but Mbowe reassured his followers in a tweet after the decision was released, saying that the dream of democracy still lives on and fear will not control them.