Prosecutors on Tuesday demanded that 50 people, including three Americans, receive the de@th penalty for what the Congolese army said was a coup attempt earlier this year.
Lieutenant Colonel Innocent Radjabu, the military prosecutor, urged the judges to condemn all defendants to de@th, with the exception of one who had “psychological problems.”
The defendants’ trial began in June and includes a number of counts, many of which are punishable by de@th, such as terrorism, m_rder, and criminal association.
Six individuals were k!lled in a bungled coup attempt in May headed by Christian Malanga, a little-known opposition activist who att@cked the presidential palace and a close supporter of President Felix Tshisekedi.
Malanga was fatally sh0t for resisting arrest shortly after live-streaming the attack on social media, according to the Congolese army.
Malanga’s 21-year-old son Marcel Malanga, a US citizen, and two other Americans are on trial for their alleged involvement in the att@ck.
His mother, Brittney Sawyer, claims her son is innocent and only followed his father, who believed himself the president of a shadow government in exile.
Tyler Thompson Jr., 21, flew to Africa from Utah with the younger Malanga for what his family thought was a vacation, with all costs.
Other teammates accused Marcel of offering up to $100,000 to accompany him on a “security job” in Congo.
Thompson’s family maintains that he had no awareness of the elder Malanga’s goals, no aspirations for political activism, and no intention of entering Congo.
Thompson’s stepmother stated that he and the Malangas were only planning to visit South Africa and Eswatini. Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, 36, is the third American standing trial.
He is said to have met Christian Malanga through a gold mining firm established in Mozambique in 2022, according to an official journal published by Mozambique’s government and an Africa Intelligence newsletter.
