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A military court in Congo has sentenced 37 individuals to death, including three Americans, following their conviction on charges related to a coup attempt. Most of those convicted were Congolese, but the group also included citizens of the U.S., the U.K., Belgium, and Canada. The defendants, facing charges of attempted coup, terrorism, and criminal association, have five days to appeal the verdict. Fourteen others were acquitted during the trial, which began in June.
The court in Kinshasa, Congo’s capital, delivered the death sentences during an open-air session broadcast on national television. Presiding judge Maj. Freddy Ehuma handed down the “harshest penalty,” stating that the 37 defendants were convicted of their involvement in the May coup attempt.
The Americans—Marcel Malanga, Tyler Thompson Jr., and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun—sat quietly as the sentence was translated to them. They had been accused of participating in the failed coup orchestrated by opposition figure Christian Malanga, who was killed during the operation. The attack, which targeted the presidential palace and a close ally of President Felix Tshisekedi, resulted in six deaths.
Marcel Malanga, 21, the son of the coup leader and a U.S. citizen, was among the convicted. His mother, Brittney Sawyer, insists he is innocent and was merely following his father. Thompson, also 21, had reportedly traveled to Africa from Utah, while Zalman-Polun, 36, had connections to Christian Malanga through a gold mining venture.
The coup attempt, live-streamed by Malanga before his death, led to a resurgence in the use of the death penalty in Congo, which had previously been under a moratorium for more than two decades. The government reinstated capital punishment earlier this year in an effort to address growing violence and militant activity in the country. Congo’s penal code allows the president to decide the method of execution, with previous executions typically carried out by firing squad.
