A military prosecutor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is demanding the death penalty for former President Joseph Kabila who is on trial in absentia.

General Lucien Rene Likulia, the Congolese military auditor general, on Friday called on judges to condemn Kabila to death for treason and war crimes, including homicide, torture and organising an insurrection, the court heard.

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The former president went on trial in his absence in July for his alleged support for Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, who have seized large swaths of mineral-rich eastern DRC this year.

Kabila, who has been outside the DRC for two years, is also accused of having plotted to overthrow President Felix Tshisekedi and other war crimes charges linked to the M23 group.

The charge sheet against him, seen by the AFP news agency, also listed the “forcible occupation of the city of Goma”, which was captured by M23 fighters in January before they agreed a ceasefire with the government in July.

Kabila has denounced the trial, calling the courts “an instrument of oppression”.

Ferdinand Kambere, Kabila’s political party secretary, told the Reuters news agency on Friday that “it is an act of relentlessness and persecution against a member of the opposition.”

The DRC lifted a moratorium on the death penalty last year, but no judicial executions have been carried out since.

The brains behind M23?

Kabila spent almost two decades in power before stepping down in 2018. He has been abroad since late 2023, mostly in South Africa.

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He announced that he was returning to the DRC to help push for peace in the war-ravaged east in April. The DRC’s government swiftly moved to ban his political party later that month, and seized his assets.

In May, the DRC’s senate voted to lift his immunity from prosecution.

Kabila made an appearance in the rebel-held east in late May, meeting local religious leaders in the presence of M23’s spokesperson Lawrence Kanyuka.

Tshisekedi, his successor as president, has branded him the brains behind the armed group, which has seized cities in the resource-rich east, reportedly with Rwanda’s help.

The charge sheet described Kabila as “one of the initiators of the Congo River Alliance” (AFC), M23’s political arm, and accuses him of having colluded with Rwanda to try to “overthrow by force the power established by law”.

It also accused Kabila of being responsible for atrocities committed by the movement in North and South Kivu provinces.

Rwanda has denied providing military backing to M23, but United Nations experts say its army played a “critical” role in the group’s offensive in the region.

The AFC and M23’s executive secretary, Benjamin Mbonimpa, distanced the movement from Kabila in comments to journalists in Goma in July, dismissing his trial as part of a “malevolent strategy” against him.

Kabila ruled the DRC between 2001 and 2009, taking power following his father Laurent Kabila’s assassination.

Although he left the country in 2023, the former leader still has influence over Congolese political life. He has criticised Tshisekedi’s government as a “dictatorship”.

For more than three decades, eastern DRC has been ravaged by conflict between various armed groups. The unrest has intensified since M23’s resurgence in 2021.