Three U.S. citizens were sentenced to death by a military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday for their involvement in a failed coup.
On May 19, armed men briefly took over a presidential office in Kinshasa before security forces killed their leader, Christian Malanga, a Congolese politician based in the U.S.
Among those on trial was Malanga’s son, Marcel Malanga, along with his friend Tyler Thompson, who had played high school football with him in Utah. Both men are in their 20s.
The third American, Benjamin Zalman-Polun, was a business partner of Christian Malanga. All three defendants were convicted of criminal conspiracy, terrorism, and other offenses, receiving death sentences in a verdict broadcast on live television.
During the trial, Marcel Malanga testified that his father had threatened to kill him if he didn’t take part in the coup.
He also revealed that this was his first visit to Congo, having been invited by his father, whom he hadn’t seen in years.
Among approximately 50 individuals standing trial for the failed coup, the Americans were part of a group that included U.S., British, Canadian, Belgian, and Congolese nationals. The verdict was delivered in the yard of Ndolo military prison, located on the outskirts of Kinshasa, under a tent.
The defendants, dressed in blue and yellow prison uniforms, sat before the judge as the ruling was read out. The trial, which involved numerous foreign nationals, had been ongoing since July.
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