Americans who participated in a failed coup d'etat in Congo sentenced to death

Published at: 13/09/2024 09:54 PM

Three U.S. citizens are among the 37 defendants who were sentenced to death by a military court this Friday, September 13, for their role in a failed coup in May in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It specifies that the armed men briefly occupied a presidential office in the capital, Kinshasa, on May 19 before their leader, the Congolese politician based in the United States, Christian Malanga, was assassinated by security forces.

His son, Marcel Malanga, was among the Americans on trial, along with Marcel's friend, Tyler Thompson, who played American football with him in high school in Utah. Both are between 20 and 30 years old.

The third American, Benjamin Zalman-Polun, was a business partner of Christian Malanga.

All three were found guilty of criminal conspiracy, terrorism and other charges, and sentenced to death in a ruling read live on television.