Congo's ex-president Kabila sentenced to death in absentia by military court

Former Democratic Republic of Congo president Joseph Kabila was sentenced to death in absentia on Tuesday by a military court that convicted him of war crimes, treason, and crimes against humanity.

The case stems from his alleged role in backing the advance of Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in Congo's volatile east. Kabila, who led Congo from 2001 to 2019, has denied wrongdoing and said the judiciary has been politicised.

Lieutenant-General Joseph Mutombo Katalayi, presiding over the tribunal in Kinshasa, said Kabila was found guilty of charges that included murder, sexual assault, torture, and insurrection.

Kabila did not attend the trial and was not represented by legal counsel. Neither he nor his representatives were immediately available for comment. His whereabouts were not immediately known.

"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 said while delivering the verdict.

He was also ordered to pay around $50 billion in various damages to the state and victims.

The verdict could fuel further divisions in the vast mineral-rich central African nation that has endured decades of conflicts.

Kabila spent almost two decades in power and only stepped down after deadly protests against him. Since late 2023, he has been residing mostly in South Africa, though he did appear in rebel-held Goma in eastern Congo in May.

He entered into an awkward power-sharing deal with his successor, Felix Tshisekedi, but their relationship soon soured.

As M23 marched on east Congo's second-largest city of Bukavu in February, Tshisekedi told the Munich Security Conference that Kabila had sponsored the insurgency.

M23 now controls much of North Kivu and South Kivu provinces. The fighting killed thousands and displaced hundreds of thousands more this year. The two sides signed a U.S.-brokered peace agreement in June, although they are both reinforcing their positions and blaming one another for flouting the accord, sources have told Reuters.

Rwanda, which has long denied helping M23, says its forces act in self-defence against Congo's army and ethnic Hutu militiamen linked to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Tshisekedi's government has moved to suspend Kabila's political party and seize the assets of its leaders.