{"id":96469,"date":"2025-09-30T17:46:58","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T17:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96469"},"modified":"2025-09-30T17:46:58","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T17:46:58","slug":"former-congolese-president-joseph-kabila-sentenced-to-death-for-war-crimes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96469","title":{"rendered":"Former Congolese president Joseph Kabila sentenced to death for war crimes"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>1 Minute, 31 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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Former Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila has been sentenced to death in absentia for war crimes and treason.<\/p>\n

The charges concern accusations that Kabila has been supporting the M23, a rebel group who have wreaked devastation across the country\u2019s eastern region.<\/p>\n

Kabila was convicted on Friday by a military court of treason, crimes against humanity, and war crimes, including murder, sexual assault, torture and insurrection. He denied the charges, but did not appear in court to defend himself.<\/p>\n

The ex-president rejected the case as \u201carbitrary\u201d and said the courts were being used as an \u201cinstrument of oppression\u201d. His current whereabouts are unknown.<\/p>\n

The 54-year-old led DR Congo for 18 years, after succeeding his father, Laurent, who was shot dead in 2001.<\/p>\n

Kabila handed power to President F\u00e9lix Tshisekedi in 2019, but they later fell out and Kabila went into self-imposed exile in 2023.<\/p>\n

In April this year, the former president said he wanted to help find a solution to the deadly fighting in the east and arrived in the M23-held city of Goma the following month.<\/p>\n

President Tshisekedi accused Kabila of being the brains behind the M23, and senators\u00a0stripped him of his legal immunity, paving the way for his prosecution.<\/p>\n

Decades of conflict had escalated earlier this year when the M23 seized control of large parts of the mineral-rich east, including Goma, the city of Bukavu and two airports.<\/p>\n

Pointing to overwhelming evidence, the UN and several Western countries have accused neighbouring Rwanda of backing the M23 and sending thousands of its soldiers into DR Congo.<\/p>\n

But Kigali denies the charges, saying it is acting to stop the conflict from spilling over onto its territory.<\/p>\n

A ceasefire deal between the rebels and the government was agreed in July, but the bloodshed has continued.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"FormerFormer Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila has been sentenced to death in absentia for war crimes and treason.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1972,9602,2019,1910,4639,117,10,9,2855],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-congolese","category-hp-news-10","category-international","category-joseph-kabila","category-news","category-politics","category-popular","category-sentenced"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}