Congo sentences 26 to death for Kabila plot

A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo sentenced 26 people to death yesterday for their role in the assassination of President Laurent Kabila in 2001, including the leader's cousin, who was also his most senior aide.

The five-member tribunal summoned each of the 135 defendants individually before the bench, and ordered execution for the 26. Another 64 received jail terms ranging from six months to life, while 45 were exonerated.

Kabila, the rebel leader who seized power in 1997, was shot and killed at his desk in the presidential palace on 16 January 2001. The gunman, one of Kabila's bodyguards, was killed by other aides. Colonel Eddy Kapend, Kabila's cousin, aide-de-camp and the accused ringleader in the assassination, was first to be sentenced to death. How or when the sentences were to be enforced was not clear.

Joseph Kabila, who took power after his father's assassination, must approve the sentences. By law, executions in Congo take place within 48 hours of the sentence unless the President decides otherwise. Odia Kayembe, Kapend's lawyer, said she would appeal to the President for clemency.

Kapend appeared on television hours after the assassination, ordering the military to seal the country's borders. His high-profile role raised suspicions that he intended to seize power – a charge he denied when he pleaded innocent in court last month. The motives behind the assassination are unknown.

Amnesty International says 200 people have been executed by the military court's orders since 1997, often within minutes of sentencing. In a statement, the London-based rights group called the trials unfair, saying defendants were denied adequate access to legal advisers and the military judges lacked judicial expertise. Many of the accused claimed they were tortured in jail. Amnesty urged Kabila to commute the death sentences, and said clemency would serve to foster a climate for reconciliation in Congo's civil war, a conflict ebbing after peace deals between the government, rebels and rebels' foreign backers. "Executing people will simply serve to further brutalise an already deeply traumatised society," Amnesty said.

Aid organisations say the war has led to the deaths of 2.5 million people, most from hunger and disease. Rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda started the war in 1998 to oust Laurent Kabila, accusing him of harbouring armed militias.