August 24, 2025 | Time Africa Magazine
A military prosecutor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is demanding the death penalty for former President Joseph Kabila, who is standing trial in absentia.
General Lucien Rene Likulia, the Congolese military auditor general, on Friday urged judges to sentence Kabila to death for treason and war crimes, including homicide, torture, and organising an insurrection.
The former leader, who left the DRC two years ago and has mostly lived in South Africa, went on trial in July over his alleged support for Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, who have captured large parts of mineral-rich eastern DRC this year. He is accused of plotting to overthrow President Felix Tshisekedi and committing other crimes linked to the group.
According to the charge sheet, Kabila is also accused of being behind the forcible occupation of Goma by M23 fighters in January, before a ceasefire deal in July. He has rejected the case, calling it “an instrument of oppression.”
Ferdinand Kambere, secretary of Kabila’s political party, told Reuters that the prosecution amounts to “relentlessness and persecution against a member of the opposition.”
Although the DRC lifted its moratorium on the death penalty last year, no executions have taken place since.
Kabila ruled the DRC for nearly two decades before stepping down in 2018. In April this year, he announced plans to return to the country to help push for peace in the east, but the government swiftly banned his party and seized his assets. In May, the Senate lifted his immunity from prosecution.
He later made an appearance in rebel-held eastern territories, meeting religious leaders in the company of M23’s spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka, further fuelling accusations of collusion. President Tshisekedi has branded him the mastermind behind the rebel movement.
The indictment also identifies Kabila as an initiator of the Congo River Alliance (AFC), M23’s political arm, and accuses him of working with Rwanda to violently overthrow the government. It further blames him for atrocities committed in North and South Kivu provinces.
While Rwanda has denied backing the rebels, UN experts maintain that its forces played a “critical” role in M23’s offensive. However, M23 leaders have distanced themselves from Kabila, dismissing his trial as part of a “malevolent strategy.”
Kabila, who inherited power in 2001 after the assassination of his father Laurent Kabila, remains an influential figure in Congolese politics despite living in exile. He has consistently criticised Tshisekedi’s government, calling it a “dictatorship.”
For over three decades, eastern DRC has suffered from violent conflicts involving armed groups, which have escalated since M23’s resurgence in 2021.
