Desk Report:
The country’s military high court has sentenced former Congolese President Joseph Kabila to death in absentia for treason and war crimes. The verdict was announced on Tuesday (September 30) local time.
The court’s ruling said that Kabila was found guilty of treason, murder, torture, sexual violence and inciting rebellion for supporting the M23 rebel group active in eastern Congo. The court’s chief judge, Lieutenant General Joseph Mutombo Katalai, said that the death penalty was the maximum penalty under Article 7 of the military criminal code.
In addition to the death sentence, the court ordered Kabila to pay compensation to the Congolese state and victims, according to a report by Russia Today (RT) on Wednesday (October 1). The compensation amount is said to be between 33 billion and 50 billion dollars.
Joseph Kabila ruled Congo from 2001 to 2019. The Senate lifted his parliamentary immunity in May and the trial began in July. Kabila has not appeared in court and has denied the charges. His whereabouts are unknown.
Meanwhile, the M23 rebel group is still waging a campaign to seize control of the mineral-rich provinces of eastern Congo. It has already captured key mining towns and cities, such as Goma and Bukavu. Thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the campaign.
Although Congo has a death penalty law, an informal moratorium on executions has been in place since 2003. According to human rights organizations, no executions have been carried out in the country in the past two decades.
Many other African countries have already abolished the death penalty. Since 2000, Gabon (2010), the Republic of the Congo and Madagascar (2015), Chad (2020), Sierra Leone (2021), the Central African Republic and Zambia (2022) have abolished the death penalty.
