A navy court docket in Congo handed down dying sentences Friday to 37 individuals, together with three People, after convicting them on expenses of taking part in a coup try.
The defendants, most of them Congolese but additionally together with a Briton, Belgian and Canadian, have 5 days to attraction the decision on expenses that included tried coup, terrorism and prison affiliation. Fourteen individuals had been acquitted within the trial, which opened in June.
The court docket within the capital, Kinshasa, convicted the 37 defendants and imposed “the harshest penalty, that of dying” within the verdict delivered by the presiding decide, Maj. Freddy Ehuma, at an open-air navy court docket continuing that was broadcast dwell on TV. The three People, sporting blue and yellow jail garments and sitting in plastic chairs, appeared stoic as a translator defined their sentence.
Richard Bondo, the lawyer who defended the six foreigners, stated he disputed whether or not the dying penalty may at present be imposed in Congo, regardless of its reinstatement earlier this yr, and stated his purchasers had insufficient interpreters throughout the investigation of the case.
“We’ll problem this resolution on attraction,” Bondo stated.
Six individuals had been killed throughout the botched coup try 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 U.S. 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-about himself president of a shadow authorities in exile.
Within the months since her son’s arrest, Sawyer has declined a number of interview requests and has targeted her power on fundraising to ship Marcel cash for meals, hygiene merchandise and a mattress. He has been sleeping on the ground of his jail cell and is affected by a liver illness, she stated.
The opposite People are Tyler Thompson Jr., 21, 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 identified Christian Malanga via a gold mining firm. The corporate was arrange in Mozambique in 2022, in line with an official journal printed by Mozambique’s authorities, and a report by the Africa Intelligence e-newsletter.
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U.S. State Division spokesman Matthew Miller instructed reporters in Washington on Friday that the federal authorities was conscious of the decision. The division has not declared the three People wrongfully detained, making it unlikely that U.S. officers would attempt to negotiate their return.
“We perceive that the authorized course of within the DRC permits for defendants to attraction the court docket’s resolution,” Miller stated. “Embassy employees have been attending these proceedings as they’ve gone via the method. We proceed to attend the proceedings and comply with the developments intently.”
Thompson had been invited on an Africa journey by the youthful Malanga, his former highschool soccer teammate in a Salt Lake Metropolis suburb. However the itinerary may need included greater than sightseeing. Different teammates alleged that Marcel had provided as much as $100,000 to hitch him on a “safety job” in Congo.
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, his stepmother, Miranda Thompson, instructed The Related Press in Could.
The Thompsons have been working with a lawyer of their residence state of Utah to encourage U.S. officers to intervene. Utah’s U.S. Sens. Mitt Romney and Mike Lee haven’t publicly urged the U.S. authorities to advocate for the People’ launch.
“My ideas are with the households throughout this troublesome time. We’ll proceed to work with the State Division to obtain updates on this case,” Lee instructed the AP on Friday.
“That is an especially troublesome and scary state of affairs for the households concerned,” Romney’s workplace stated in a written assertion. “Our workplace has constantly engaged with the State Division and can proceed to take action.”
Final month, the navy prosecutor, Lt. Col. Harmless Radjabu, referred to as on the judges to condemn the entire defendants to dying, aside from one who suffers from “psychological issues.”
Congo reinstated the dying penalty earlier this yr, lifting a greater than two-decade-old moratorium, as authorities wrestle to curb violence and militant assaults within the nation.
—Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake Metropolis. Related Press writers Monika Pronczuk in Dakar, Senegal, and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
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