(Bloomberg) -- A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo condemned to death 37 people, including three Americans, for participating in a failed putsch in May.
The men attacked the home of a top Congolese politician in the capital, Kinshasa, killing two police officers, before briefly occupying the near-empty offices of President Felix Tshisekedi early on a Sunday morning.
The leader of the group, a man named Christian Malanga, was killed by soldiers along with several others, according to the army, who called the attacks an attempted coup.
Read: Congo Coup Leader Killed in Foiled Attack, Presidency Says
Malanga’s son, Marcel, was one of the three Americans condemned to death for the attack. A Canadian, Belgian and a British citizen were also given the death penalty.
The condemned have five days to appeal, the court said.
Mineral-rich Congo is one of the world’s poorest countries, but has had a relatively stable central government since a series of civil wars officially ended in 2003.
Malanga, a little-known opposition politician who’d lived in the US for decades, said prior to the attack on social media and a website that he wanted to establish a “new Zaire,” the name of Congo under longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.
The attackers first targeted the home of Tshisekedi ally and current president of the national assembly, Vital Kamerhe. Malanga then live-streamed his group at the presidential offices waving flags and chanting before they were eventually captured or killed by government soldiers.
Congo lifted a more than two-decade-long moratorium on carrying out death penalty sentences earlier this year.
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