President Felix Tshisekedi of the DR Congo has commuted the death sentences of three Americans to life imprisonment due to their involvement in what the military described as a failed coup attempt in the country last year, according to an announcement.
Marcel Malanga, Tyler Thompson, and Benjamin Zalman-Polun are currently incarcerated in a military facility in Kinshasa, the capital. The trio, aged between 23 and 37, were part of 37 individuals who received death sentences for their alleged roles in the coup attempt in May, which involved an assault on a minister’s residence followed by an advance towards presidential offices.
The announcement regarding the commutation of their sentences was broadcast on state television overnight.
The three Americans are now “entitled to hope for a full release following a complete remission of sentence, which is also one of the ways a presidential pardon can be granted according to the constitution” of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The purported coup attempt launched in the early morning of May 19 last year, when a group of armed men attacked the home of then-economy minister Vital Kamerhe, who is presently the president of the national assembly.
Subsequently, the assailants proceeded to a building housing Tshisekedi’s offices, carrying flags of Zaire, the country’s name under the former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was overthrown in 1997. Witnesses reported hearing gunfire near the premises at that time.
An army spokesperson later announced on national television that the defence and security forces had thwarted “an attempted coup d’état.”
The alleged conspiracy was led by Christian Malanga, a Congolese individual who had become a U.S. citizen and was killed by security personnel, according to army spokesperson General Sylvain Ekenge. He was the father of Marcel Malanga.
In March of last year, the Congolese government ended a moratorium on the death penalty since 2003. The government said that this action aimed to address soldiers charged with treason, as the country encounters armed insurgencies in the troubled east.
Human rights organisations condemned this decision. Since then, over 100 death sentences have been issued, but none have yet been executed.
