DR Congo military prosecutor demands death sentence for former President Kabila amid treason trial

On Friday, a military prosecutor recommended the death penalty for former DR Congo President Joseph Kabila, who is being tried in absentia on treason allegations.

General Lucien Rene Likulia urged the judges to sentence Kabila to death for war crimes, treason, and inciting an insurgency, the court heard.

In July, the former president was tried in absentia for allegedly supporting Rwandan terrorists M23.

Kabila, who has been out of the DRC for two years, is also accused of plotting to depose President Felix Tshisekedi, as well as counts of homicide, torture, and rape related to the M23 movement.

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.