A Briton and three Americans are among 37 people sentenced to death on Friday over an attempt to overthrow the president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Six people were killed during the botched coup attempt led by the opposition figure Christian Malanga on 19 May that targeted the presidential palace and a close ally of President Félix Tshisekedi.
Armed men first attacked the parliamentary speaker Vital Kamerhe’s home in Kinshasa, then briefly occupied an office of the presidency, before Malanga, a US-based Congolese politician, was killed by security forces.
Malanga was shot while resisting arrest soon after live-streaming the attack on his social media, the Congolese army said.
The defendants, who also include a Belgian, a Canadian national and several Congolese, can appeal against the verdict on charges that included terrorism, murder and criminal association. Fourteen people were acquitted in the trial, which opened in July.
The three Americans convicted were Malanga’s son Marcel Malanga, 21, as well as Tyler Thompson Jr and Benjamin Zalman-Polun.
Marcel had told the court that his father, from whom he had been estranged, threatened to kill him unless he participated. He said it was his first time visiting the country at the invitation of his father whom he had not seen in years.
Thompson, 21, flew to Africa from Utah with Marcel for what his family believed was a vacation with all expenses paid by the elder Malanga, the court previously heard.
The pair had played high school football together in Salt Lake City. Other teammates had accused Marcel of offering up to $100,000 to join him on a “security job” in DRC
