Kinshasa, April 9th, 2025 (CPA). – Three Americans convicted in the May 2024 coup d’état trial in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), have been evacuated to the USA on Tuesday to serve their sentences, a presidential source has said. « Following the presidential pardon granted to the three American prisoners whose sentences had been commuted to life imprisonment, in collaboration with the US ambassador in Kinshasa, Marcel Malanga, Benjamin Zalman and Taylor Thompson have been evacuated to the United States to serve their sentences », has written Tina Salama, spokeswoman for the Head of State on his X account. On the night of Tuesday April 1st, 2025, these three Americans had benefited from a presidential pardon when their death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment, under the terms of a series of presidential orders.
The Head of State’s spokeswoman had read out the following order on national television: « Order granting an individual pardon (…), in view of the request for a pardon made on behalf of those concerned by the Public Prosecutor’s Office and on the proposal of the Minister of State in charge of Justice and Keeper of the Seals, orders that the death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment for Marcel Malanga, Teylor Christo Thompson and Zalman Polun Benjamin, all American subjects, sentenced on January 27th, 2025 by judicial decision ». 35 of the 37 defendants on appeal for terrorism in the suppressed coup have been sentenced to death by the Kinshasa-Gombe military court, sitting in Ndolo prison. The same court had acquitted two other defendants. On the night of May 19th, 2024, those convicted had organised an uprising to overthrow the government of Felix Tshisekedi by attacking strategic locations, including the Nation’s Palace, to declare the seizure of power by the late Christian Malanga, leader of the assailants, all of whom belonged to the « New Zaire » movement. ACP/