A military court in DR Congo has sentenced a Member of Parliament (MP) Edouard Mwangachuchu to death over alleged involvement in treason with the M23 rebel movement.
After his sentencing on Friday, his lawyer denounced the verdict as based on “ethnic hatred”.
The death penalty is often handed down in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but has not been applied for 20 years and is systematically commuted to life imprisonment.
The public prosecutor had in August requested life imprisonment for Mwangachuchu, 70, who represents the Masisi constituency in the national assembly and also owns a mining company.
Mwangachuchu, who was not present at the sentencing, was found guilty of “illegal possession of weapons and munitions of war,” as well as “treason” and “participation in the M23 insurrectionary movement,” said presiding judge General Robert Kalala.
The Tutsi-led M23 militia has captured swathes of territory in the DR Congo’s North Kivu province since reemerging from dormancy in 2021.
Independent UN experts, the Kinshasa government and several Western nations including the United States and France accuse Rwanda of actively backing the M23, an allegation Kigali has strongly denied.
Taken in for questioning in early March, Mwangachuchu was first held in Kinshasa’s main prison Makala, before being transferred to the Ndolo military prison where the 30 or so hearings in his trial were held.
His co-defendent Robert Muchamalirwa, a police captain prosecuted for “violation of orders”, was acquitted by the court which ordered his immediate release.
Mwangachuchu’s lawyer said he will appeal the verdict, calling it a trial “based on ethnic hatred and deductions”.
Thomas Gamakolo said that it had never been proven that Mwangachuchu had links with Rwanda and was presumed guilty because he belonged to the Tutsi ethnic group.
“It is very difficult today in our country to live or exist as a Tutsi,” the lawyer said.
