Congo Military Court Sentences Ex-President Kabila to Death In Absentia

KINSHASA, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Former Democratic Republic of Congo president Joseph Kabila was sentenced to death in absentia on Tuesday by a military court that convicted him of war crimes, treason, and crimes against humanity.

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

Kabila did not attend the trial and was not represented by legal counsel. Neither he nor his representatives were immediately available for comment. His whereabouts were not immediately known.

ORDERED TO PAY $50 BILLION IN DAMAGES

“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.

He was also ordered to pay around $50 billion in various damages to the state and victims.

The verdict could fuel further divisions in the vast mineral-rich central African nation that has endured decades of conflicts.

He entered into an awkward power-sharing deal with his successor, Felix Tshisekedi, but their relationship soon soured.

As M23 marched on east Congo’s second-largest city of Bukavu in February, Tshisekedi told the Munich Security Conference that Kabila had sponsored the insurgency.

Rwanda, which has long denied helping M23, says its forces act in self-defence against Congo’s army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.