The death penalty was requested today for 25 of the 26 defendants who are being tried by a military court in Kinshasa for their alleged involvement in the actions of the M23 rebels.
The prosecution has requested a 20-year prison sentence for the 26th defendant.
The defense is scheduled to present its arguments on Tuesday afternoon.
The M23 (March 23 Movement) is a predominantly Tutsi rebellion that, with the support of Rwanda, has seized vast swathes of territory in the province of North Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, since late 2021.
At the start of the trial on July 24, there were 25 defendants, 20 of whom were free and being tried in absentia, but one defendant, a former M23 spokesman, was added during the trial.
The defendants are accused of "war crimes", "participation in an insurrectionary movement" and "treason", crimes for which the prosecution has requested the death penalty.
The main defendant, who is on the run, is Corneille Nangaa, former president of the Electoral Commission of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who announced last December, from Nairobi, the creation of a political-military movement, the Alliance for the Future of Congo (AFC), which is part of the M23.
The list of defendants also includes some of the best-known figures of the M23: the president, Bertrand Bisimwa, the military leader Sultani Makenga, and the spokesmen Willy Ngoma and Lawrence Kanyuka.
Some of the other leaders of the movement are not on the list, which includes the names of the members of the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy, of former president Joseph Kabila (2001-2019) who joined the AFC.
The five defendants present at the trial are unknown to the public.
One of them maintained his innocence and claimed to have been arbitrarily detained because of his surname ("Nangaa"), and the defendant for whom the Public Prosecutor's Office requested a 20-year prison sentence.
However, at least two of them admitted and stated that they belonged to the AFC.
The opening of the trial was announced two days in advance by the Minister of Justice, Constant Mutamba, who personally attended the first hearing.
Amid growing unrest, Kinshasa decided in March to lift a moratorium on the execution of the death penalty, in force since 2003.
According to the government, this measure, which has been heavily criticised by human rights organisations, is aimed mainly at soldiers accused of treason.
Since the beginning of July, around 50 soldiers have been sentenced to death in the east of the country for "cowardice" and "fleeing the enemy".
