37 sentenced to death in DR Congo

A military court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has sentenced to death 37 people, including three United States citizens, on charges of taking part in a failed coup in May, Al Jazeera reported.

“The court pronounces the harshest sentence: the death penalty for criminal association, the death penalty for attack, the death penalty for terrorism,” the court’s president, Freddy Ehume, said in a verdict read on live television on Friday.

The defendants – who also included a Briton, Belgian and Canadian – have five days to appeal the verdict. Fourteen people were acquitted in the trial, which opened in June.

At the time of the attempted coup, military officials said armed men had briefly occupied an office of the presidency in the capital, Kinshasa, on May 19. Their leader, US-based Congolese politician Christian Malanga, was killed by security forces, and two security guards were also killed in the failed takeover.

Malanga, who styled himself “President of New Zaire”, was a wealthy businessman, politician and one-time military captain in the Congolese army. He contested parliamentary elections in 2011 but was arrested and detained for several weeks under former President Joseph Kabila.

Upon his release, Malanga went to the US, where he founded the opposition United Congolese Party (UCP). Over the years, he campaigned for religious freedom in Africa and led anticorruption training initiatives for young Africans in Europe.