Supporters of ex-DRC President Kabila denounce proposed death penalty as ‘sham’

Prosecutors in a military court in Democratic Republic of Congo have requested the death penalty for former leader Joseph Kabila who is on trial in absentia on charges including treason over alleged support for Rwanda-backed M23 armed group. Kabila’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), called it “a sham trial that comes as no surprise.”

Kabila’s PPRD permanent secretary, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary called it “a political decision” that will be given “a judicial guise” by the judges of the High Military Court.

“It is an unfair, unjust, even less balanced trial, which is also a non-event. We see hatred oozing from it towards someone who gave you everything,” he told RFI’s Kinshasa correspondent.

“This decision makes Joseph Kabila even stronger and more resilient forever. That is why I limit myself to asking our PPRD leaders and activists and all Kabilists to remain calm until democratic victory, because there is nothing.”

Kabila himself has rejected the case as “arbitrary” and called the courts “an instrument of oppression”.

Congolese opposition leader Moïse Katumbi, through his party Together for the Republic, also denounced in a statement a “cynical political manoeuvre” intended to “silence a major player” and “sow terror” in the country.

Criminal charges

General Lucien Rene Likulia called on judges at the latest hearing last Friday, to condemn Kabila to death for war crimes, treason and organising an insurrection.

The trial against the former president, 53, began in his absence in July for his alleged support for Rwanda-backed M23 militants.

Likulia said Kabila, in coordination with Rwanda, had been trying to carry out a coup against President Felix Tshisekedi.

Kabila, who has been outside the DRC for two years faces charges including homicide, torture and rape linked to the M23 group.

DR Congo tries ex-president Joseph Kabila in absentia for treason

Other charges include “crime against the peace and safety of humanity” and “forcible occupation of the city of Goma”.

The M23 armed group has seized swathes of the resource-rich Congolese east with Rwanda’s help.

The violence committed by the M23 in the east of the country had caused “immense prejudice” to the country, for which Kabila had criminal responsibility, Likulia argued.

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

Deputy Justice Minister Samuel Mbemba told reporters : “The courts do not negotiate, they will do their work independently.”

M23 denies Kabila ties

The charges described Kabila as “one of the initiators of the Congo River Alliance” (AFC), the M23’s political arm, accusing him of colluding with Rwanda to try to “overthrow by force the power established by law”, and of being responsible for atrocities committed by the movement in the North and South Kivu provinces in the mineral-rich east.

But the AFC and M23’s executive secretary Benjamin Mbonimpa distanced the movement from Kabila at a news conference in Goma in the end of July. 

Former DRC president Kabila visits rebel-held Goma for controversial talks

He said that the government should not “label him an AFC/M23 member” just because he had come to the city.

“As a Congolese citizen,” Kabila is “free to go wherever he likes”, he said, branding the trial part of a “malevolent strategy” against the ex-president.  

Kabila has branded his successor’s government a “dictatorship”.

He himself took power following his father Laurent Kabila’s assassination in 2001 and governed the DRC until 2019, before leaving the country in 2023.

The eastern DRC has been ravaged by conflict between various armed groups for more than three decades, with the unrest intensifying since the M23’s resurgence in 2021.

By:Melissa Chemam with RFI at https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20250825-supporters-of-former-drc-president-kabila-denounce-death-sentence-as-sham