Kinshasha - A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo sentenced 26 people to death on Tuesday for their involvement in the assassination of President Laurent Kabila two years ago.
Kabila was shot and killed by a bodyguard in his presidential palace in January 2001 and replaced soon afterwards as head of Africa's third-biggest nation by his son, Joseph. The bodyguard was shot dead at the scene of the murder.
Among those sentenced to death was Colonel Eddy Kapend, Kabila's closest personal aide, who was found guilty of having organised what was described by the court as a "failed coup plot".
The 26 were among 135 people who have been on trial for the murder since March last year. Around 40 other defendants were acquitted and about 50 were given prison sentences ranging from three years to life.
Prosecutor Colonel Charles Alamba, who had recommended the death penalty for more than 100 of the accused, said that President Joseph Kabila would now decide whether the executions would go ahead.
The condemned have no right of appeal. By law, executions in the Congo take place within 48 hours of the sentence unless the president decides otherwise.
Human rights groups, which have slammed the trial as unfair since the start, called for Kabila to commute the death sentences.
"The defendants clearly did not receive a fair trial," said UK-based Amnesty International in a statement, adding that they had not been given adequate time to prepare their defence.
"The presiding judges were all members of the military or the security services with little or no legal training, whose status as members of the executive put in question their independence and impartiality," it said.
Since taking over as president, Joseph Kabila has made strides towards ending a messy regional war that had raged under his father's corrupt rule.
Amnesty said commuting the death sentences would help to foster a much-needed climate of reconciliation. "But executing people will simply serve to further brutalise an already deeply traumatised society," it warned. - Reuters