A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday sentenced 37 people including three Americans to death in a trial over an “attempted coup” in May.
The defendants, who also included a Briton, Belgian, Canadian and several Congolese, can appeal the verdict on charges that included terrorism, murder and criminal association. Fourteen people were acquitted in the trial, which opened in June.
Armed men briefly occupied an office of the presidency in the capital Kinshasa on May 19 before their leader, US-based Congolese politician Christian Malanga, was killed by security forces.
The coup attempt by a relatively unknown opposition figure Christian Malanga resulted in six fatalities. The attack targeted the presidential palace and a close ally of President Felix Tshisekedi. According to the Congolese army, Malanga, who was killed while resisting arrest, had live-streamed the assault on his social media.
His son, Marcel Malanga, was among the Americans on trial, long with Marcel’s friend Tyler Thompson who played high school football with him in Utah. Both are in their 20s.
Marcel Malanga’s 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.
Following the trial of 51 people that began in early June, the court president Freddy Ehume said Friday “The court pronounces the harshest sentence: the death penalty for criminal association, the death penalty for attack, the death penalty for terrorism,”
All three were found guilty of criminal conspiracy, terrorism and other charges, and sentenced to death in a ruling read out on live TV.
Malanga had previously told the court that his father had threatened to kill him unless he participated. He also told the court it was his first time visiting Congo at the invitation of his father, whom he hadn’t seen in years.
The Americans are among around 50 people, including US, British, Canadian, Belgian and Congolese citizens, standing trial following the failed coup. The verdict was read out under a tent in the yard of Ndolo military prison on the outskirts of Kinshasa. The defendants were seated in front of the judge, wearing blue and yellow prison-issued tops.
Peoplesmind
