Former President Joseph Kabila is being tried in absentia, but a military prosecutor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is demanding the death penalty.
The court heard that general Lucien Rene Likulia, the country’s military auditor general, had requested that judges sentence Kabila to death for treason and war crimes, including homicide, torture, and organizing an insurrection.
In July, the former president was detained for allegedly supporting Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, who seized significant chunks of the mineral-rich eastern DRC this year in absentia.
Kabila is accused of plotting to overthrow President Felix Tshisekedi and other war crimes crimes crimes related to the M23 group, a fact that has been ongoing for two years outside of the DRC.
The “forcible occupation of the city of Goma,” which M23 fighters seized in January before agreeing a ceasefire with the government in July, was also noted in the charge sheet against him, which was visible to the AFP news agency.
Kabila has called the trial “an instrument of oppression,” calling it an “instrument of oppression.”
It is an act of relentlessness and persecution against a member of the opposition, according to Ferdinand Kambere, the political party secretary for Kabila.
No judicial executions have occurred since the DRC lifted its moratorium on the death penalty last year.
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Kabila resigned in 2018 after almost two decades in power. Since late 2023, he has spent most of his time abroad, most recently in South Africa.
In April, he announced that he would be making a trip to the DRC to promote peace in the region’s devastated east. Later that month, the DRC’s government announced a swift ban on his political party and the seizing of his assets.
His immunity from prosecution was lifted by the DRC’s senate in May.
In front of M23’s spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka, Kabila made an appearance in the rebel-held east in late May.
Tshisekedi, his successor to the presidency, has alleged that Rwanda has assisted him in capturing cities in the resource-rich east.
Kabila is accused of conspiring with Rwanda to “overthrow by force the power established by law” (AFC), which is M23’s political arm, and of initiating the charge sheet.
Additionally, it claimed that Kabila was to blame for the atrocities committed by the movement in the provinces of North and South Kivu.
Rwanda has denied providing M23 with military support, but UN experts claim that its army contributed to the group’s offensive there.
In a statement to journalists in Goma in July, the AFC and M23’s executive secretary, Benjamin Mbonimpa, defended the movement against Kabila and said his trial was part of a “malevolent strategy” against him.
Kabila assumed power in the DRC between 2001 and 2009 after his father’s murder.
The former leader still has a significant impact on Congolese politics despite his leaving in 2023. He has criticized Tshisekedi’s “dictatorship” in media.
Source: Aljazeera
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