Prosecutors seek $250m over botched coup

DRC prosecutors are suing the 51 people they blame for a failed coup for the equivalent of $250m in damages, alleging they gave the country a bad name. On 19 May, armed men briefly seized control of Kinshasa's presidential office. Security troops killed the coup's apparent leader, Christian Malanga, a local politician who had lived in the US. Americans Benjamin Zalman-Polun, Malanga's son Marcel Malanga, his high school friend Tyler Thompson Jr, and British national Youssouf Ezangi are among the suspects on trial. Also among those arrested are Mata Maguy and Ephraïm Mangungu who are accused of providing logistical support to mercenaries. News24 reports that the defendants are appearing before the Kinshasa-Gombe Military Court, sitting at the Ndolo Military Prison in Kinshasa. Their actions had caused the DRC both moral and material harm, National Bar Association president Matadi Wamba has told the hearing. No amount of money could undo the harm of the idea, pushed from abroad, that Congolese people should revolt against institutions that aren't working, he said. ‘Material harm also because infrastructure has been ransacked. There is no sum of money that will repair these wrongs suffered.’ But he managed to put a price to it: $250m, payable in Congolese francs. Treason is punishable by death in the DRC. According to the Death Penalty Project, it's estimated that there are 800 people on death row in the DRC.

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