SALT LAKE CITY — 3 American citizens repatriated to america from Congo had been charged Wednesday by way of the U.S. Justice Division with staging an elaborate coup try aimed toward overthrowing the African country’s executive.
A fourth guy alleged by way of prosecutors to be a bomb-making skilled was once additionally charged for assisting the plot.
The grievance arises from the set of allegations that led to 3 of the defendants being detained in Congo and receiving loss of life sentences that had been later commuted to punishments of existence imprisonment.
Within the fruits of a long-running FBI investigation, the Justice Division accused the lads of offering coaching, guns, apparatus and different toughen to a rebellion military that was once shaped to take a look at to overthrow the federal government ultimate 12 months.
A number of the 3 American citizens was once 22-year-old Marcel Malanga, son of opposition determine Christian Malanga, who led the foiled coup try that centered the presidential palace in Kinshasa. The elder Malanga, who livestreamed from the palace throughout the try, was once later killed whilst resisting arrest, Congolese government stated.
Prosecutors say the purpose of the plot was once to ascertain a brand new executive referred to as the New Zaire and set up Christian Malanga as its president. The more youthful Malanga known himself because the “Leader of Group of workers of the Zaire military” and acted as a pace-setter of the rebellion forces, court docket paperwork say.
Defendants Marcel Malanga, Tyler Thompson, 22, and Benjamin Zalman-Polun, 37, had been to start with sentenced to loss of life, however that was once commuted to existence sentences previous to their go back to the U.S. They had been anticipated to make their first court docket look in Brooklyn. Joseph Peter Moesser, 67, was once because of seem in Salt Lake Town Thursday.
