KINSHASA-(MaraviPost)-Former President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, has been sentenced to death and ordered to pay US$30 billion in damages.
He is said to be living in exile in South Africa.
Kabila, who served as president from 2001 to 2019, left the DRC in 2023 but recently visited Goma in the east of the country, an area controlled by the M23 rebel group.
The former president went on trial in absentia in July for allegedly supporting the Rwanda-backed rebels, who seized large swaths of territory in eastern Congo earlier this year.
A military tribunal in Kinshasa, presided over by Lieutenant General Joseph Mutombo Katalayi, convicted him of treason, crimes against humanity, murder, sexual assault, torture, and insurrection.
“In applying Article 7 of the Military Penal Code, it imposes a single sentence, namely the most severe one, which is the death penalty,” Katalayi declared when delivering the verdict.
In addition to the death sentence, Kabila was ordered to pay nearly 50 billion dollars in damages to the state and victims.
Analysts warn the ruling could deepen political and regional divides in the vast, mineral-rich central African nation, which has endured decades of conflict.
Kabila held power for almost two decades and only stepped down after violent protests against his rule.
Since late 2023, he has mostly resided in South Africa, though he appeared in rebel-held Goma in May.
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