DR Congo: Prosecutors search loss of life penalty for 50 folks implicated in alleged coup try

AP
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Prosecutors on Tuesday referred to as for 50 folks, together with three Individuals, to face the loss of life penalty for what the Congolese military says was a coup attempt earlier this year.

Navy prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Harmless Radjabu urged the judges to condemn to loss of life all these on trial, apart from one defendant who suffers from “psychological issues.”

The defendants, whose trial opened in June, face quite a lot of costs, many punishable by loss of life, together with terrorism, homicide and legal affiliation.

Six folks had been killed in the course of the botched coup attempt led by the little-known opposition determine Christian Malanga in Could that focused the presidential palace and a detailed ally of President Felix Tshisekedi. Malanga was fatally shot for 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 Individuals are on trial for his or her alleged function within the assault. His mom, Brittney Sawyer, has stated her son is harmless and easily adopted his father, who thought-about himself president of a shadow authorities in exile.

Tyler Thompson Jr., 21, flew to Africa from Utah with the youthful Malanga for what his household believed was a trip, with all bills paid by the elder Malanga. The younger males had performed highschool soccer collectively within the Salt Lake Metropolis suburbs. Different teammates accused Marcel of offering up to $100,000 to hitch him on a “safety job” in Congo.

Thompson’s household maintains he had no information 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.

Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, 36, is the third American on trial. He’s reported to have identified Christian Malanga by means of a gold mining firm that was arrange in Mozambique in 2022, in keeping with an official journal revealed by Mozambique’s authorities, and a report by the Africa Intelligence publication.

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.