Congo: Court sentences three Americans and 34 others to death on coup charges

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — A military court in Congo sentenced 37 people, including three Americans, to death on Friday after finding them guilty of participating in an attempted coup.

The defendants, most of them Congolese, but also a Briton, a Belgian and a Canadian, have five days to appeal against the verdict. They are accused of attempted coup, terrorism and criminal association, among other things. In the trial that began in June, 14 defendants were acquitted.

The court convicted the 37 defendants and imposed “the harshest punishment, the death penalty,” presiding judge Maj. Freddy Ehuma announced in an open-air military hearing broadcast live on television. The three Americans, wearing blue and yellow prison garb and sitting on plastic chairs, looked stoic as a translator explained the verdict to them.

Richard Bondo, the lawyer defending the six foreigners, said he doubted the death penalty could currently be imposed in Congo, even though it was reinstated earlier this year, and said his clients had not had adequate interpreters while investigating the case.

“We will appeal this decision,” Bondo said.

Six people died during the failed coup attempt led by little-known opposition leader Christian Malanga in May, which targeted the presidential palace and a close ally of the president Felix Tshisekedi. Malanga was fatally shot while resisting arrest, shortly after he streamed the attack live on his social media, the Congolese army said.

Malanga's 21-year-old son, Marcel Malanga, a U.S. citizen, and two other Americans were convicted of the attack. His mother, Brittney Sawyer, said her son was innocent and was merely following his father, who considered himself president of a shadow government in exile.

In the months since her son's arrest, Sawyer has declined several interview requests and focused her energy on raising funds to send Marcel money for food, hygiene products and a bed. He sleeps on the floor of his prison cell and suffers from liver disease, she said.

The other Americans were Tyler Thompson, Jr.21, who flew with the younger Malanga from Utah to Africa to do what his family thought it was a holidayand Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, 36, who is said to have known Christian Malanga through a gold mining company founded in Mozambique in 2022, according to an official Mozambican government journal and a report by the Africa Intelligence newsletter.

US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters in Washington on Friday that the federal government was informed of the ruling.

“We know that the legal process in the Democratic Republic of Congo allows defendants to appeal the court's decision,” Miller said. “Embassy staff have been following the proceedings throughout the process. We will continue to follow the proceedings and monitor developments closely.”

Thompson had been invited to travel to Africa by the younger Malanga, his former high school football teammate in a Salt Lake City suburb. But the itinerary may have included more than just sightseeing. Other teammates claimed Marcel offered to up to 100,000 US dollars to assist him with a “security job” in Congo.

Thompson's family claims he knew nothing of the elder Malanga's intentions, had no plans for political involvement and did not even intend to enter Congo. He and the Malangas were only supposed to travel to South Africa and Eswatini, his stepmother Miranda Thompson told the Associated Press in May.

The Thompsons are working with a lawyer in their home state of Utah to get the U.S. government to intervene. The offices of U.S. Senators Mitt Romney and Mike Lee of Utah did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.

Last month, military prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Innocent Radjabu asked judges to sentence all defendants to death except one who suffered from “mental health problems.”

Beginning of the year the death penalty reintroducedlifting a moratorium that was more than two decades old as authorities struggle to contain violence and militant attacks in the country.

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Schoenbaum reported from Salt Lake City. Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed from Washington.