The family of a Utah student sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo for his alleged role in a failed coup d’etat in which his father was killed fears he and two other Americans could be executed within days without US government intervention.
Marcel Malanga, 22, was one of dozens convicted and sentenced at a military tribunal in Kinshasa last week, after the attempted overthrow of the Congolese government in May. The “amateurish” assault, which left six dead, was led by his father, Christian Malanga, a former DRC opposition leader, army captain and self-styled warlord.
Among those found guilty was Marcel Malanga’s friend Tyler Thompson, 21, also from West Jordan, a suburb of Salt Lake City, whose relatives believed the two young men were on vacation together in South Africa. Both families say the two are innocent.
Wednesday is the deadline set by the tribunal president, the Congolese army major Freddy Ehume, for the 37 convicts to appeal their sentences. Giving the families further anxiety is the declaration by the DRC government earlier this year that it was lifting a two-decade-old moratorium on the death penalty.
“Their lives are at stake. We’ve talked to our lawyers and they told us it was urgent,” Patricia Malanga, Marcel’s aunt and Christian’s sister, said.
“We have been quiet because we wanted to see how things would go, but keeping our silence is actually putting their lives in danger.
“This fight was my brother’s fight for the people of Congo. It was not Marcel’s fight, it was not Tyler’s fight and it was not Ben’s fight,” she added, referring to Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun, 36, of Maryland, a former business partner of Christian Malanga who is also among those convicted.
“The Congolese government is making them a scapegoat for what my brother did. They are innocent. Marcel is just an American kid – he’s never been in the military, never been in trouble with the law in the US, let alone go and stand up for a militia in a foreign country.”
Thompson’s family, meanwhile, said it was “heartbroken” by the verdict. “We continue to believe in Tyler’s innocence and will be pursuing all possible appellate remedies,” they said in a statement released by their lawyer Skye Lazaro.
“We urge all who have supported Tyler and the family throughout this process to write to your congressmen and request their assistance in bringing him home. We are grateful for the kindness and support during the past months [and] ask that our family’s privacy be respected as we navigate this situation and determine our next steps.”
Patricia Malanga said her family was in “constant communication” with politicians in Utah and the US embassy in Kinshasa. However, the state department has not declared the Americans wrongfully detained and has not publicly made representations to the Congolese government.
A state department spokesperson, Matthew Miller, told reporters on Friday that the government was aware of the verdict and that embassy staff “have been attending these proceedings and [will] follow the developments closely”. The department did not immediately return a request for comment.
According to NPR, neither of Utah’s two Republican senators, Mitt Romney and Mike Lee, have called on the Biden administration to request their release.
Marcel Malanga, his aunt said, had taken Thompson to Africa at his father’s invitation to show him his homeland, of which he was proud, but had never previously visited.
During the tribunal hearing, both Thompson and Malanga testified they had no idea what Christian Malanga was planning until he woke them in the middle of the night at gunpoint, an assertion Patricia Malanga said that, knowing her brother, she agreed with “1,000%”.
“He had not said anything about any of this happening until that night,” Thompson told the court, NPR reported. “To my knowledge we were here on vacation to meet him, so I did not see him as a threat. The only thing he told me is that I must do everything as he says or else I will die.”
Marcel Malanga, testifying last month, claimed he and Thompson had been “beaten and tortured” after they were captured. Others who were charged complained of inhumane treatment at the high-security military prison in Kinshasa in which they were held, and of being tortured by military police for confessions.
“The prison system is the worst of the worst. They only have two bathrooms for thousands of prisoners,” Patricia Malanga said.
She said her family was frustrated by accusations that Marcel Malanga was involved in his father’s planning, and that they felt they could not speak out about them during the hearing.
“He’s not this thug, this bandit the world has portrayed him to be. He’s none of these things, just an American kid who had no fight with the Congolese government,” she said.
“We’ve been living through hell. We love him and we miss him, and we want Tyler, Ben and Marcel back with their families. They need to come home.”
