Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has sentenced former president Joseph Kabila to death in absentia.
The tribunal, presided over by Lieutenant General Joseph Mutombo Katalayi, found Kabila guilty of a string of serious crimes, including treason, crimes against humanity, murder, sexual assault, torture and insurrection.
Under the military penal code, all of these carry the maximum punishment of death.
Kabila, who ruled the country from 2001 until 2019, left the DRC in 2023 but resurfaced recently in Goma, an eastern city controlled by the M23 rebel group.
He was accused of backing the Rwanda-supported rebels, who have taken control of large parts of the region this year.
Rwanda denies supporting M23, but UN experts insist Rwandan troops played a decisive role in their offensive.
The former leader went on trial in absentia in July. He was not represented by lawyers and has not commented publicly since the verdict. His whereabouts are currently unknown.
Kabila has previously condemned the charges, dismissing the courts as tools of political oppression. In May, the Senate voted to strip him of immunity, a move he described as dictatorial.
Although Congo lifted its moratorium on the death penalty last year, the country has not carried out judicial executions in decades.
An appeal to the Court of Cassation is still possible, but only on procedural grounds rather than the substance of the case.
The ruling follows calls from the military prosecutor, General Lucien Rene Likulia, who accused Kabila of plotting to overthrow President Félix Tshisekedi, while linking him to killings, torture and sexual violence attributed to M23.
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