KINSHASA – A military prosecutor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is demanding the death penalty for former President Joseph Kabila who is on trial in absentia over alleged support for M23 rebels and other charges.
General Lucien Rene Likulia, the Congolese military auditor general, on Friday called on judges to condemn Kabila to death for treason and war crimes, including homicide, torture and organising an insurrection, the court heard, as reported by French news agency AFP.
Kabila – the fourth and second longest serving president in DRC – was put to trial in his absence in July for his alleged support for Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, who have seized large swaths of mineral-rich eastern DRC this year.
Kabila, who has been outside the DRC for two years, is also accused of having plotted to overthrow President Felix Tshisekedi and other war crimes charges linked to the M23 group.
The charge sheet against him, seen by the AFP news agency, also listed the “forcible occupation of the city of Goma”, which was captured by M23 fighters in January before they agreed a ceasefire with the government in July.
Kabila has denounced the trial, calling the courts “an instrument of oppression”.
Ferdinand Kambere, Kabila’s political party secretary, told the Reuters news agency on Friday that “it is an act of relentlessness and persecution against a member of the opposition.”
The DRC lifted a moratorium on the death penalty last year, but no judicial executions have been carried out since.
Kabila ruled the DRC between 2001 and 2009, taking power following his father Laurent Kabila’s assassination.
Although he left the country 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, eastern DRC has been ravaged by conflict between various armed groups. The unrest has intensified since M23’s resurgence in 2021.