Congo courtroom sentences three People to demise over coup try, with 34 others

Kinshasa, Congo
AP
 — 

A army courtroom in Congo handed down demise sentences Friday to 37 folks, together with three People, after convicting them on expenses of collaborating in a coup try.

The defendants, who additionally included a Briton, Belgian, Canadian and a number of other Congolese, can enchantment the decision on expenses that included terrorism, homicide and legal affiliation. Fourteen folks had been acquitted within the trial, which opened in June.

Six folks had been killed through the botched coup attempt led by the little-known opposition determine Christian Malanga in Could that focused the presidential palace and an in depth ally of President Felix Tshisekedi. Malanga was fatally shot whereas resisting arrest quickly after live-streaming the assault on his social media, the Congolese military stated.

Malanga’s 21-year-old son Marcel Malanga, who’s a US citizen, and two different People had been convicted within the the assault. His mom, Brittney Sawyer, has stated her son is harmless and was merely following his father, who thought of himself president of a shadow authorities in exile.

The opposite People had been Tyler Thompson Jr., who flew to Africa from Utah with the youthful Malanga for what his household believed was a trip, and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, 36, who’s reported to have recognized Christian Malanga by a gold mining firm.

The corporate was arrange in Mozambique in 2022, in accordance with an official journal revealed by Mozambique’s authorities, and a report by the Africa Intelligence publication.

Thompson’s household maintains he had no data of the elder Malanga’s intentions, no plans for political activism and didn’t even plan to enter Congo. He and the Malangas had been meant to journey solely to South Africa and Eswatini, Thompson’s stepmother stated.

The studying out of the decision and sentencing earlier than the open-air army courtroom had been broadcast reside on tv.

Final month, the army prosecutor, Lt. Col. Harmless Radjabu. referred to as on the judges to condemn to demise the entire defendants, aside from one who suffers from “psychological issues.”

Earlier this yr, Congo reinstated the death penalty, lifting a greater than two-decade-old moratorium, as authorities wrestle to curb violence and militant assaults within the nation.