A military court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has sentenced former President Joseph Kabila to death in absentia.
Lieutenant General Joseph Mutombo Katalayi, who presided over the military tribunal, said on Tuesday that Kabila was convicted of various crimes, including treason, crimes against humanity, murder, sexual assault, torture, and insurrection.
Kabila, who served as president from 2001 to 2019, had 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 his alleged support for the Rwanda-backed rebels, who seized large swaths of territory in the eastern DRC this year.
There was no immediate information about Kabila’s whereabouts after the military court’s verdict on Tuesday.
The ex-president did not attend the trial and was not represented by legal counsel.
Kabila had previously slammed the case against him, calling the courts “an instrument of oppression”.
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