A military court in Kinshasa has sentenced former President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, to death over offences of treason and crimes against humanity.
The court, in an absentia trial against 55-year-old Kabila, declared him culpable of supporting and collaborating with a Rwandan-backed rebel group identified as M23, which terrorized Congo, as well as other offences which included sexual assault, all termed as terrorism against the central African country.
Lieutenant General Joseph Katalayi, who presided over the trial which lasted about four hours, held that the former president, who ruled over the country for almost two decades, from 2001 to 2019, functioned as a leader of the rebel group and deserved a death penalty, according to the laws enshrined in Article 7 of the country’s Military Penal Code.
In reaction, Kabila’s political party, Common Front for Congo, has condemned the court’s ruling which also include a $31 billion to be paid as damages to the Congo’s Kivu province, terming it ”illegal and a tragicomedy. The party added that the order was illegitimate from start to finish as a letdown of the former leader.
Bigwigs in the country have disclosed that an appeal over the court’s verdict delivered on Tuesday is possible even as Kabila’s whereabouts remain unknown.
