Congo’s President, Felix Tshisekedi, has reduced the death sentences of three Americans convicted for their role in a failed coup attempt in Kinshasa last year.
The presidential order changed their punishment to life imprisonment, a spokesperson for the Congolese government, Tina Salama, confirmed on Wednesday.
The three Americans were sentenced along with more than 30 others in a military trial after the coup attempt in May 2024. The plot, led by opposition figure Christian Malanga, targeted the presidential palace and a close ally of Tshisekedi. Malanga was killed during the attack while resisting arrest.
The U.S. citizens involved include Malanga’s 21-year-old son, Marcel Malanga, who claimed in court that his father forced him and another American, Tyler Thompson Jr., to participate.
“Dad had threatened to kill us if we did not follow his orders,” he had told the court.
Thompson, also 21, was reportedly a high school friend of Malanga’s who had traveled from Utah for what his family believed was a free vacation. The third American, Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, 36, was said to have known Malanga through a gold mining business.
The decision to commute the sentences comes as Congo works on a minerals deal with the U.S. in exchange for security support to help fight rebels in the country’s eastern region.
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department announced that President Donald Trump’s senior advisor for Africa, Massad Boulos, will visit Congo, Rwanda, Kenya, and Uganda from April 3. His trip aims to promote peace in eastern Congo and strengthen U.S. business investment in the region.
