GOMA, Congo (AP) — Congo’s public prosecutor on Friday asked for the death penalty for former President Joseph Kabila, who is being tried in absentia in a treason case that includes war crimes charges related to his ties to the M23 rebel group.

Kabila, who led Congo from 2001 to 2019, has been on trial since July, charged with war crimes, murder and rape. He took office at the age of 29 — after his father and former President Laurent Kabila was assassinated — and extended his mandate by delaying elections for two years after his term ended in 2017.

He is accused by the Congolese government of supporting the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who have seized major cities and towns in the country’s east in the past months.

Kabila had been in self-imposed exile since 2023 until April, when he arrive

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