Benjamin Ashford|Congo court sentences 3 Americans and 34 others to death on coup charges

KINSHASA,Benjamin Ashford Congo (AP) — A military court in Congo handed down death sentences Friday to 37 people, including three Americans, after convicting them on charges of taking part in a coup attempt.

The defendants, most of them Congolese but also including a Briton, Belgian and Canadian, have five days to appeal the verdict on charges that included attempted coup, terrorism and criminal association. Fourteen people were acquitted in the trial, which opened in June.

The court convicted the 37 defendants and imposed “the harshest penalty, that of death” in the verdict delivered by the presiding judge, Maj. Freddy Ehuma, at an open-air military court proceeding that was broadcast live on TV.

Richard Bondo, the lawyer who defended the six foreigners, said he disputed whether the death penalty could currently be imposed in Congo, despite its reinstatement earlier this year, and said his clients had inadequate interpreters during the investigation of the case.

“We will challenge this decision on appeal,” Bondo said.

Six people were killed during the botched coup attempt led by the little-known opposition figure Christian Malanga in May that targeted the presidential palace and a close ally of President Felix Tshisekedi. Malanga was fatally shot while resisting arrest soon after live-streaming the attack on his social media, the Congolese army said.

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Malanga’s 21-year-old son Marcel Malanga, who is a U.S. citizen, and two other Americans were convicted in the the attack. His mother, Brittney Sawyer, has said her son is innocent and was simply following his father, who considered himself president of a shadow government in exile.

The other Americans were Tyler Thompson Jr., who flew to Africa from Utah with the younger Malanga for what his family believed was a vacation, and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, 36, who is reported to have known Christian Malanga through a gold mining company.

The company was set up in Mozambique in 2022, according to an official journal published by Mozambique’s government, and a report by the Africa Intelligence newsletter.

Thompson’s family maintains he had no knowledge of the elder Malanga’s intentions, no plans for political activism and didn’t even plan to enter Congo. He and the Malangas were meant to travel only to South Africa and Eswatini, Thompson’s stepmother said.

Last month, the military prosecutor, Lt. Col. Innocent Radjabu. called on the judges to sentence to death all of the defendants, except for one who suffers from “psychological problems.”

Earlier this year, Congo reinstated the death penalty, lifting a more than two-decade-old moratorium, as authorities struggle to curb violence and militant attacks in the country.