Appeal process opens in DR Congo 'coup' affair
by AFP Staff Writers
Kinshasa (AFP) Oct 10, 2024

The appeal process following a trial in which 37 people were sentenced to death over what the army said was a failed coup bid began on Thursday, an AFP journalist saw.

A total of 51 people went on trial in September in the DRC over the alleged May coup attempt, in which armed men attacked a minister's home before heading to presidential offices.

The appeal process began at 11:45 am (1045 GMT) under a large tent in a military prison in the capital Kinshasa, where those sentenced are being held.

Dressed in yellow and blue prison uniforms, each person was called to the front of the court to identify themselves.

Among the 37 were three Americans, as well as a Belgian, Briton and Canadian, who all also had Congolese nationality.

All but one of those sentenced to death were found guilty of criminal association, attack and terrorism.

The supposed coup bid began in the early hours of May 19 when several dozen armed men attacked the home of then-economy minister Vital Kamerhe, who is now the national assembly president.

Armed men then went to a building housing President Felix Tshisekedi's offices waving flags of Zaire, the country's name under ex-dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was overthrown in 1997.

Shots were heard near the building, several sources said at the time.

An army spokesman said later on national television that defence and security forces had stopped "an attempted coup d'etat".

The alleged plot was led by Christian Malanga, a Congolese man who was a "naturalised American" and who was killed by security forces, army spokesman General Sylvain Ekenge has said.

The three Americans on trial include Malanga's son Marcel Malanga.

The two other Americans being tried are 22-year-old Tyler Thompson and Benjamin Zalman-Polun, 36.

Several rights groups have denounced the convictions after a trial that shed little light on the case, and called for the death sentences to be commuted to life in prison.

After the verdict was announced, the US State Department said it was "monitoring the situation".

In March, the DRC government lifted a moratorium on the death penalty that had been in force since 2003.

It said this was to target soldiers accused of treason, with the country facing armed rebellion in its troubled east.

The next appeal hearing will take place on October 18.

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