Thirty-seven folks – together with three Individuals, one British, one Belgian and one Canadian – had been sentenced to dying for trying to overthrow the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The boys are accused of main assaults on the presidential palace and houses of allies of President Felix Tshisekedi in Might.
Congolese-American Christian Malanga, the suspected chief of the plot, died within the assault together with 5 others.
A complete of 51 folks had been tried earlier than navy courts, and the hearings had been broadcast on nationwide tv and radio.
Malanga’s son Marcel, one of many U.S. residents sentenced to dying, beforehand instructed the court docket that his father had threatened to kill him until he participated.
Fourteen folks had been acquitted.
The Democratic Republic of Congo has not carried out the dying penalty in about twenty years – criminals sentenced to dying are sentenced to life in jail.
In March, the federal government lifted the ban, citing the necessity to purge “traitors” from the nation’s dysfunctional navy. Nonetheless, no executions have been carried out since.
This tried coup broke out within the capital Kinshasa within the early morning of Might 19. Armed males first attacked the Kinshasa dwelling of Parliament Speaker Important Kamelkh earlier than heading to the presidential palace.
Witnesses stated about 20 attackers in navy uniforms attacked the palace and a firefight ensued.
A navy spokesman later introduced on state tv that safety forces had stopped “an tried coup”.
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