DR Congo ‘coup bid’ verdict to be delivered September 13

A military court trying 51 people over what the army says was a coup attempt in Democratic Republic of Congo will deliver its verdict on September 13, a lawyer of one of the defendants told AFP Tuesday.

Fifty-one people, including three US citizens, face charges over the incident, which began in the early hours of May 19 when armed men attacked the home of the DRC’s Economy Minister Vital Kamerhe.

The group then went to a building housing President Felix Tshisekedi’s offices, brandishing flags of Zaire, the country’s name under ex-dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was overthrown in 1997.

Shots were heard near the building, several sources said at the time.

READ ALSO:Uganda Police shoot opposition leader, Bobi Wine

An army spokesman later announced on national TV that defense and security forces had stopped “an attempted coup d’etat”.

The military court promised to deliver the judgement “on September 13”, Ckines Ciamba, the lawyer for one of the American’s told AFP.

In late August military prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Innocent Radjabu urged judges to sentence to death all but one of the defendants.

But nine defendants have pleaded not guilty.

“We plead not guilty,” Richard Bondo, a lawyer for US citizen Benjamin Zalman-Polun, told the court on Friday, calling for the detainees to be released.

The alleged plot was led by Christian Malanga, a Congolese man who was a “naturalized American” and who was killed by security forces, army spokesman General Sylvain Ekenge has said.

The three Americans on trial at the Kinshasa military court include Malanga’s son Marcel Malanga.

Tyler Thompson, another of the American defendants, told the court last month that he had been “forced” into participating, echoing the two other US citizens facing the same charge.

READ ALSO:At least 81 killed in Nigeria in suspected Boko Haram attack – officials

Zalman-Polun said he was “kidnapped” and “forced” into taking part.

The defendants also include a Belgian, a Briton and a Canadian who are all naturalized Congolese.

The trial began on June 7 in Ndolo military prison, where all the defendants are being held.

The charges include “attack, terrorism, illegal possession of weapons and munitions of war, attempted assassination, criminal association, murder (and) financing of terrorism”