# Congo court sentences Joseph Kabila to death in absentia after treason conviction
Kinshasa's military court has handed Joseph Kabila the death penalty in absentia, accusing the former president of treason, war crimes and collaborating with Rwanda-backed rebels in eastern Congo.
A high military court in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Tuesday convicted former president Joseph Kabila of treason, war crimes, conspiracy and organizing an insurrection, then sentenced him to death. The ruling focused on allegations that Kabila worked with the M23 rebel movement and with Rwanda in a campaign against the government of President Felix Tshisekedi.
The court ordered Kabila's immediate arrest. It also awarded damages totaling $33 billion, including $29 billion to the central government and additional sums to North Kivu and South Kivu provinces. Kabila's whereabouts were unknown at the time of the verdict, and he has been tried in absentia since July.
The case is one of the most dramatic legal and political moves against a former Congolese head of state in recent years. Kabila led Congo from 2001 to 2019, taking office after the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila. He remained in power beyond his original mandate by delaying elections, then lost power after the December 2018 vote that brought Tshisekedi to office.
Prosecutors relied in part on testimony from Eric Nkuba, the imprisoned former chief of staff of rebel leader Corneille Nangaa. The court said Nkuba described Kabila as regularly communicating with Nangaa by phone about plans to topple the government. Kabila's political party rejected the verdict as politically motivated and said the aim was to neutralize a major opposition figure.
The judgment lands against the background of a much wider security crisis in eastern Congo. The AP report said fighting linked to M23 and its offensive in January killed about 3,000 people and displaced roughly 7 million more. The government says Kabila's return to rebel-held Goma in April linked him to that conflict, while Kabila has denied wrongdoing and previously signaled support for the rebels in a February op-ed.
The verdict also follows the Senate's May vote to strip Kabila of immunity from prosecution. That move set the stage for Tuesday's ruling and marked another step in a long-running confrontation between Kabila's camp and Tshisekedi's government.
For Congo, the case combines criminal law, wartime claims and a struggle over political legitimacy. The court's decision gives the government a formal legal victory, but it also risks deepening an already volatile conflict over power, accountability and the future of the country's east.
