Congo Military Court Sentences Ex-President Joseph Kabila to Death

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s military court has sentenced former President Joseph Kabila to death in absentia on charges of treason, murder, sexual assault, insurrection, and torture.

Kabila, who succeeded his father, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, after his assassination in 2001, rose to power at the age of 29 and went on to rule DR Congo for nearly two decades before stepping down in 2019.

Delivering the judgment in Kinshasa, Lieutenant-General Joseph Mutombo Katalayi, who presided over the tribunal, declared:

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

The court also ordered Kabila to pay $33 billion (€28 billion) in damages to the Congolese state and to the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu.

The former leader was accused of backing the Rwanda-supported M23 rebels, with current President Felix Tshisekedi alleging that Kabila was the “mastermind” behind the armed group destabilizing the east of the country.

Kabila, who has spent the last two years in self-imposed exile, reappeared unexpectedly in eastern Congo earlier this year. He has strongly denied the accusations, dismissing Tshisekedi’s administration as a “dictatorship.”