DR Congo's ex-president Joseph Kabila sentenced to death in absentia for 'treason'

KINSHASA - Joseph Kabila, the former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been sentenced to death in absentia for treason and other charges by a military court in Kinshasa. Kabila, whose whereabouts are unknown, has denied the allegations.

A military court in Kinshasa on Tuesday convicted DR Congo’s ex-president Joseph Kabila of treason and other charges and sentenced him to death.

Lieutenant-General Joseph Mutombo Katalayi, who presided over the tribunal, said Kabila was found guilty of charges that included murder, sexual assault, torture, and insurrection.

”In applying Article 7 of the Military Penal Code, it imposes a single sentence, namely the most severe one, which is the death penalty,” Katalayi said while delivering the verdict.

Kabila, whose whereabouts are unknown, was also ordered to pay around $50 billion in various damages to the state and victims.

DR Congo’s government said Kabila – who ruled the country between 2001 and 2019 – collaborated with Rwanda and the M23 rebel group that seized key cities in eastern Congo in January in a lightning assault.

Kabila has denied the allegations.

In May, the country’s Senate voted to repeal his immunity from prosecution, a move Kabila denounced at the time as dictatorial.

Kabila had lived outside Congo in self-imposed exile but returned in April to Goma, one of the cities held by the rebel group. It is not known if he stayed there.

The country lifted a moratorium on the death penalty last year, but no judicial executions have been carried out since.