KINSHASA: Three US citizens on trial for their role in a failed coup in Democratic Republic of Congo were sentenced to death by a military court on Friday.

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.

His son, Marcel Malanga, was among the Americans on trial, along with Marcel’s friend Tyler Thompson who played high school football with him in Utah. Both are in their 20s.

The third American, Benjamin Zalman-Polun, was a business associate of Christian Malanga.

All three were found guilty of criminal conspiracy, terrorism and other charges, and sentenced to death in a ruling read out on live TV.

Marcel 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. The trial began in July.

The hearing began early in the afternoon under a tent in a courtyard of a military prison in Kinshasa.

The Belgian, military expert Jean-Jacques Wondo, said ahead of the trial he hoped to be acquitted and that he was suffering a “difficult ordeal”.

During the alleged coup attempt, the armed men also went to a building housing President Felix Tshisekedi’s offices brandishing flags of Zaire, the country’s name under ex-dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2024