Three American citizens who were sentenced to death over a failed coup attempt in the Democratic Republic of Congo have had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment, according to a spokeswoman for the Central African country’s president. The three Americans were among 37 people condemned to death last September after taking part in a May 2024 attack on the government that was streamed live and included a gun battle near the presidential palace. Security forces killed the coup leader, Christian Malanga, a minor opposition politician. But his son, Marcel Malanga, was arrested along with his high school friend Tyler Thompson and Benjamin Zalman-Polun, a business associate of Christian Malanga’s. Those three men — who are all American citizens — were singled out and granted “individual clemency,” Tina Salama, the Congolese president’s spokeswoman, said in a post late Tuesday on X. There was no immediate comment from the U.S. State Department.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/world/africa/congo-coup-americans-death-sentences.html