Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, left, Marcel Malanga and Tyler Thompson, all American citizens, attend the court verdict in DRC, Kinshasa, on charges of participating in the coup attempt in May 2024.
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KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo – A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday sentenced 37 people, including three US citizens, to death for their role in a failed coup in the central African nation this summer.
“The court pronounced the strongest sentence: the death penalty,” said Major Freddy Ehume, president of the court, which was held under a Khaki-green tent in the courtyard of the Ndolo military prison in the capital Kinshasa.
The sentence ends three months of hearings into the events of May 19, when an armed group led by Congolese political exile and longtime US citizen Christian Malanga launched an attempt to overthrow the government of President Felix Tshisekedi.
That night, Malanga and several dozen men first stormed the home of senior politician Vital Kamerhe, a close ally of Tshisekedi, in the capital Kinshasa, before storming the sprawling presidential compound in the center of the city. There, according to Malanga footage broadcast live on social media, he unfurled a flag and chanted anti-government slogans.
But Congolese forces quickly retook control – killing Malanga in the process. He was one of at least six people killed in the coup attempt, according to Congolese. Innocent victims are also killed. A security guard stationed at Kamerhe’s house was shot dead, as was a man who stopped randomly on the street to steal a jeep.
Immediately after the coup, security forces arrested three Americans, along with dozens of others, on the banks of the nearby Congo River, trying to flee the presidential compound.
Christian Malanga’s son, Marcel Malanga, 22, was among those caught. Like his close friends from Utah, Tyler Thompson, 21 years old, and Benjamin Zalman, a native American, 36 years old, from Maryland.
Pollen.
Thompson’s family told reporters they believed their son was on vacation.
Footage circulating on social media – and which was shown during a subsequent trial – suggested the brutal conditions of detention. In one of the videos, a naked Zalman-Polun was on a riverboat when excited and screaming soldiers shot at a man trying to swim.
Congolese security forces rounded up dozens of people after the coup attempt, putting a total of 51 people on trial in Kinshasa on charges of murder, terrorism, criminal association, etc., which carries the death penalty.
Despite officially putting the death penalty on the books, Congo maintained a decades-long moratorium on the death penalty until March, when the government lifted the measure to abolish what it called ‘treason’.
American Marcel Malanga, fourth right, stands with others during a court verdict in the DRC, Kinshasa, Friday September 13, 2024, on charges of participating in a coup attempt in May 2024.
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The coup trial at Kinshasa’s Ndolo military prison began in June, after several weeks of the accused being held incommunicado. Called before the bar, many testified that they had been tortured by military intelligence agents in custody.
Youssouff Ezangi, a Congolese-born British national who was appointed by the Congolese authorities as one of the main leaders of the coup, initially appeared in court with his hands covered in black bruises.
US citizens also testified that their statements were extracted under duress, and without the presence of an interpreter. “In the first place underground, we were beaten and tortured,” said Marcel Malanga, calmly, during a court hearing in August.
Throughout the trial, the defendants, like Tyler Thompson, usually stuck with the same story – that Christian Malanga forced them to participate.
According to Thompson, Christian Malanga woke her up the night of the coup attempt and threatened her with a gun.
“He hasn’t said anything about what happened until last night,” he told the court. “Just so you know, we’re here on vacation to see him, so I don’t see him as a threat. The only thing he said is that I have to do everything he says, or I’ll die.”
Translation problems also plagued the opening of the trial, with the first interpreter provided by the army barely able to understand basic English. Accused US citizens cannot speak the official language of the Congolese government, French, or Kinshasa’s dominant language Lingala.
The three Americans told the story of the night of May 19, telling the court that Malanga Christians forced them to join with guns, and they feared for their lives.
Most of the Congolese told the same story. Primarily recruited from western Congo, the majority say that Christian Malanga hired them to work for the NGO, not mentioning anything about political goals.
But the court rejected this defense, and did not immediately respond to the objections of the defense lawyers that the testimony extracted during the torture was invalid.
51 defendants face a military court in the DRC after the attempted coup in May 2024.
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On Friday, the court found every member of the alleged attack group – including three US citizens; one Canadian; and Ezangi, a British citizen — guilty on all counts.
Jean-Jacques Wondo, a Belgian citizen who did not participate in the attack, was also sentenced to death, for allegedly being the “intellectual author” of the event. A former adviser to the Congolese secret service, authorities accused him of turning off his phone the day after the attack and maintaining contact with Malanga through an intermediary. He, as well as all the other defendants, vehemently denied the claims.
Fourteen people, mostly those wrongfully rounded up after the coup attempt, were released. Ehume, the president of the court, said he and four other judges had reached their decision through a secret ballot.
But one defense lawyer in the coup case, who declined to be named to protect his client, is very skeptical. “This is light, the court did not investigate the substance of the case,” said the lawyer. “He has a decision in his pocket.”
Marcel Malanga’s counsel, Sylva Mbikayi, said she was “shocked” by the sentence and vowed to appeal. “This is a shameful decision, colored by a lot of bad faith on the part of the judiciary”.
