A military tribunal in the Democratic Republic of Congo has sentenced former President Joseph Kabila to death in absentia after convicting him of treason, crimes against humanity, and sexual assault.
Kabila, 54, who led the DRC from 2001 to 2019, was found guilty by the military court in Kinshasa on Tuesday.
He was accused of collaborating with the M23 rebel group, which has been responsible for ongoing violence in the eastern part of the country.
The court found him culpable of war crimes, murder, torture, conspiracy, sexual violence, and aiding terrorism.
Delivering the verdict, Lieutenant General Joseph Mutombo Katalayi, who presided over the tribunal, read the ruling over a four-hour session.
He stated that Kabila had long been the “undisputed leader of M23.”
“In applying Article 7 of the Military Penal Code, it imposes a single sentence, namely the most severe one, which is the death penalty,” General Mutombo declared.
Despite the conviction, the former president’s current location remains unknown.
However, the court noted that the death sentence is still subject to appeal.
Reacting to the ruling, Kabila’s political party, the Common Front for Congo, dismissed the verdict as baseless and politically motivated.
The party described the sentence as “illegal from start to finish,” labelling the proceedings a “tragicomedy.”
