Prosecutor seeks death penalty for Kabila in treason trial

A military prosecutor on Friday demanded the death penalty for DR Congo’s former president Joseph Kabila who is on trial in absentia on treason charges.

General Lucien Rene Likulia called on the judges to condemn Kabila to death for war crimes, treason and organising an insurrection, the court heard.

The former president went on trial in his absence in July for his alleged support for Rwanda-backed militants M23.

Kabila, who has been outside the DRC for two years, is also accused of having plotted to overthrow President Felix Tshisekedi and charges including homicide, torture and rape linked to the M23 group.

The charge sheet against him also listed the “forcible occupation of the city of Goma”, captured by M23 fighters in January before they agreed a permanent ceasefire with the government in July.

Kabila arrived in the eastern city in May, meeting local religious leaders in the presence of the M23’s spokesman Lawrence Kanyuka.

Tshisekedi, his successor as president, has branded him the brains behind the armed group, which has seized swathes of the resource-rich Congolese east with Rwanda’s help.

Kabila has denounced the trial, calling the courts “an instrument of oppression”.

The DRC lifted a moratorium on the death penalty last year but no judicial executions have been carried out since.

– Enduring influence –

The charge sheet seen by AFP described him as “one of the initiators of the Congo River Alliance” (AFC), the M23’s political arm and accuses him of having colluded with Rwanda to try to “overthrow by force the power established by law”.

It also accused Kabila of being responsible for atrocities committed by the movement in the North and South Kivu provinces in the mineral-rich east.

Rwanda denies providing military backing to the M23 but UN experts say its army played a “critical” role in the group’s offensive in the region.

The AFC and M23’s executive secretary Benjamin Mbonimpa distanced the movement from Kabila in comments to journalists in Goma in July, dismissing his trial as part of a “malevolent strategy” against him.

Kabila ruled the country between 2001 and 2009, taking power following his father Laurent Kabila’s assassination.

Although he left the DRC in 2023, the former leader still has influence over Congolese political life. He has criticised Tshisekedi’s government as a “dictatorship”.

For more than three decades, the eastern DRC has been ravaged by conflict between various armed groups.

The unrest has intensified since the M23’s resurgence in 2021.

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