Particle.news
Download on the App Store

DR Congo’s Top Military Court Sentences Joseph Kabila to Death in Absentia

Prosecutors cast the ex-leader as architect of the M23/AFC rebellion, prompting a nonappealable verdict with an immediate-arrest order.

Overview

  • The Supreme Military Court in Kinshasa found Kabila guilty of high treason and war crimes and issued a death sentence that can be enforced only if he returns to the country.
  • Judges ordered his immediate arrest and awarded $33 billion in damages to the state and to North Kivu and South Kivu.
  • The court cited additional counts including conspiracy, planning a coup, crimes against peace and security, rape, torture, and glorification of crimes.
  • Military prosecutors said he was the “intellectual author” of the M23/AFC offensive; Kabila visited M23-held Goma in May and reportedly met rebel leaders.
  • Kabila denies the allegations from exile and calls the case political; the ruling cannot be appealed, and the DRC has not carried out executions since 2003.