DRC Sentences 37 People to Death for Involvement in Attempted Coup
Christian Malanga While Serving as Captain for the Congolese Military in 2007 (Wikimedia Commons)
The Congolese military court sentenced 37 people, including three Americans, to death On September 13 for their involvement in an attempted coup.
Congolese military troops foiled an attempt to overthrow the government of President Felix Tshisekedi in late 2023 after Tshisekedi won a second term in a disputed election on May 19 earlier that year.. A group of around 50 armed men, led by U.S.-based Congolese opposition leader Christian Malanga, first attacked the residence of Vital Kamerhe, a close political ally of the president. They then briefly occupied the Palais de la Nation (residence of the presidency) until security forces intervened. Malanga live-streamed the attempted coup and Congolese officials fatally shot him for resisting arrest.
A total of 51 people were tried in a Kinshasa military court on charges including murder, terrorism, criminal association, many of which carry the death penalty. Live television and radio broadcast the trial. The court acquitted 14 people while it convicted and sentenced the other 37 defendants to death. For the past two decades, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has had a moratorium on executions,with those sentenced to death instead given life imprisonment. However, the government announced the reinstatement of the death penalty in March 2024.
The three Americans involved in the coup include the son of the coup leader, 22-year-old Marcel Malanga, his high-school friend, Tyler Thompson, and 36-year-old Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Poulun, a former business associate of the elder Malanga. During their hearings, both the younger Malanga and Zalman-Poulun testified that they, alongside Thompson, were forced to take part in the coup under the threat of death. Thompson’s parents maintain that he went to Africa with Marcel Malanga for a free vacation, and had no plans of political violence.
Among the other internationals sentenced to death is Jean-Jacques Wondo. A dual citizen of the Congo and Belgium and prominent researcher of regional politics and security in Africa’s Great Lakes region, Wondo did not take part in the attack, but the court convicted him for allegedly serving as the “intellectual author” of the coup. Human Rights Watch has suggested that the court charged Wondo based only on the evidence of a November 2016 photo where he can be seen shaking hands with Christian Malanga at a gathering of Congolese opposition leaders in Brussels. A British citizen and a Canadian citizen are the other two internationals also sentenced to death.
The lawyer for the three Americans filed an appeal for their convictions within the allotted five days. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State stated that they will continue to closely monitor the case.