The former president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (RDC), Joseph Kabila, was sentenced to death this Tuesday, September 30, after a trial in absence for “betrayal” and “war crimes”, before the military judge of the country where he has not resided for two years.
A recent reappearance of Joseph Kabila in the country had worried Kinshasa and, according to some observers, this conviction aims to rule out the possibility that he can federate the opposition within the country, even if there has been no information about the place where the former head of state (2001-2019) is currently.
His immunity had been raised at the end of May
At 54, Joseph Kabila, who was not present in his trial in the capital Kinshasa and was not represented there, was declared guilty of complicity with the M23 armed group.
Between January and February, the M23 supported by Rwanda and its army led to an offensive magnitude in the east of the country, grabbing large sides of territories along the Rwanda border in front of an obsolete Congolese army.
Shortly after these military setbacks that weakened the Kinshasa regime, Joseph Kabila, who had left the Congolese ground in 2023 according to his entourage, made a surprise appearance in rubber, capital of the province of northern Kivu and Feud de M23.
In recent years, the former president, an expert in the art of handling the secret, had remained very discreet in his new places of attachment, making some appearances, particularly in South Africa and Namibia.
In May, in a rare online speech, Joseph Kabila, who still enjoys a nebulous influence network, said “the dictatorship must end” in the RDC and said he was ready to “play his score”, openly opening himself as an opponent of the current president Félix Tshisekedi.
In the government’s court order, Joseph Kabila’s parliamentary immunity as a life senator was raised at the end of May and a trial for betrayal was opened at the end of July.
At the end of a hearing of almost five hours on Tuesday, in a room full of lawyers and journalists, the president of the Military Superior Court, the highest military jurisdiction in the country, brought together the sentence “without admission of the circumstances attenuated to the death penalty.”
The reasons: war crime for homicide or intentional murder, for violation, torture, as well as for betrayal and organization of an insurrectional movement. Joseph Kabila is also sentenced to fifteen years in prison for conspiracy.
“Adversary”
However, the arrest of a former president by the Congolese authorities seems unlikely to this stage despite his conviction. In addition, a moratorium on the execution of the capital judgment in force since 2003 was built in 2024, but since then an execution has not taken place.
A legal action is still possible before the Court of Cassation, only to try to affirm an irregularity in the procedure, but not to examine the substance again.
For this judicial decision, Kinshasa hopes to send “a strong message to the rebels about their intransigence” but also “weakening an adversary” who tried to “federate the opposition,” explains Ithiel Batumike, researcher at the Ebuteli Congolese Institute.
The East Congolese, rich in natural resources, has been torn by conflicts for thirty years. The presence of a multitude of armed groups and militias has an almost permanent climate of insecurity. The M23, which affirms its desire to overthrow the regime of the president of Tshisekedi, reappeared in the region at the end of 2021.
A peace agreement between the Congolese and Ruandese governments was signed in June in Washington. A statement of principle with the M23 “in favor of a high permanent fire” was also signed in Qatar in July, but violence on the ground persists.
Summarized executions, collective violations or kidnappings, NGOs denounces abuse to civilians. A United Nations investigation in early September pointed out acts of all parties in the conflict that can constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Son of Laurent-Désiré Kabila, Rebel, had dropped the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, Joseph Kabila inherited power in 2001 by the succession of the monarchical type after his father’s murder in January of the same year. In 2019, after two terms, he left power giving way to Félix Tshisekedi.
Source: BFM TV
