Democratic Republic of Congo: Military court sentences 37 people to death for attempted coup

A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo has handed down 37 death sentences in connection with the attempted coup in May. Among those convicted are three US citizens and three defendants with Belgian, British and Canadian passports. The defendants were also ordered to pay up to 50 million US dollars (around 45 million euros) in damages to the state.

Defense attorney Richard Bondo denounced the “harsh sentence without taking into account mitigating circumstances” and announced that he would appeal.

In the trial, which has been ongoing since June, 51 people were charged with terrorism, illegal possession of weapons and ammunition, attempted assassination, forming a criminal organization, murder and financing terrorism. 14 of them were acquitted.

A group of armed men attempted to storm President Félix Tshisekedi’s office in Kinshasa on the night of May 19. The Congo US-born opposition politician Christian Malanga, alleged leader of the coup attempt, and three other people were killed, according to security forces. The US citizens now convicted are Malanga’s son Marcel, 22-year-old Tyler Thompson and 36-year-old Benjamin Zalman-Polun.

Criticism from human rights organization

After the coup attempt, the human rights organization Human Rights Watch had already criticized the arrest of the Belgian-Congolese security expert Jean Jacques Wondo, who has now also been sentenced to death. According to his relatives, the charges against him were based on a photo from 2016 in which he was seen together with Malanga.

Only this year, the Democratic Republic of Congo reintroduced the death penalty, which had been suspended for decades.