Thirty-seven individuals – together with three People, one British, one Belgian and one Canadian – have been sentenced to loss of life for trying to overthrow the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The boys are accused of main assaults on the presidential palace and houses of allies of President Felix Tshisekedi in Could.
Congolese-American Christian Malanga, the suspected chief of the plot, died within the assault together with 5 others.
A complete of 51 individuals have been tried earlier than army courts, and the hearings have been broadcast on nationwide tv and radio.
Malanga’s son Marcel, one of many U.S. residents sentenced to loss of life, beforehand informed the court docket that his father had threatened to kill him until he participated.
His pal Tyler Thompson was additionally sentenced to loss of life. The couple, who have been of their 20s, had performed soccer collectively in Utah.
his stepmother Miranda Thompson in June; tell bbc family He had “no concept” how he ended up within the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“We have been utterly shocked by what was occurring and what we did not know. The whole lot we realized was one thing we realized from Google,” she mentioned.
The third American, Benjamin Zalman-Polun, has enterprise pursuits with Christian Malanga.
Additionally sentenced to loss of life was Jean-Jacques Wondo, a twin citizen of Congo and Belgium.
Human Rights Watch beforehand described him as a outstanding researcher on regional politics and safety and Evidence linking him to the coup attempt is weak.
Agence France-Presse reported that the 2 British and Canadians have been of Congolese origin.
Fourteen individuals have been acquitted.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has not carried out the loss of life penalty in about twenty years – criminals sentenced to loss of life are sentenced to life in jail.
In March, the federal government lifted the ban, citing the necessity to purge “traitors” from the nation’s dysfunctional army. Nonetheless, no executions have been carried out since.
Within the early morning of Could 19, an tried coup broke out within the capital, Kinshasa. Armed males first attacked the Kinshasa dwelling of Parliament Speaker Very important Kamelkh earlier than heading to the presidential palace.
Witnesses mentioned about 20 attackers in army uniforms attacked the palace and a firefight ensued.
A army spokesman later introduced on state tv that safety forces had stopped “an tried coup”.
Native media reported that the attacker was a member of the New Zaire Motion and had hyperlinks to Malanga, an exiled politician within the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Military spokesman Brigadier Siravan Ekenge mentioned Malanga was shot useless in the course of the assault after resisting arrest.
In December final yr, President Tshisekedi was re-elected in a disputed election. He received about 78% of the vote.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a rustic wealthy in mineral sources and with a big inhabitants. Regardless of this, life stays troublesome for a lot of and battle, corruption and poor governance persist.
A lot of the nation’s pure sources are within the east, the place violence stays rampant regardless of Tshisekedi’s makes an attempt to handle the scenario by imposing martial regulation, ceasefires and mobilizing troops from neighboring nations.
Further reporting by Emery Makumeno in Kinshasa & Natasha Booty
