A court heard testimony from two American citizens who are currently on trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for their involvement in an attempted coup in May. They claimed that the coup leader had threatened to murder them if they didn’t join.

On May 19, armed men took over the presidency for a short while in Kinshasa, the country’s capital, before their commander, the politician Christian Malanga, a Congolese national living in the United States, was slain by security personnel.

Speaking for the first time since the trial began, Malanga’s son Marcel Malanga, 22, and Benjamin Zalman-Polun told the court that the coup leader had threatened them.

“Dad had threatened to kill us if we did not follow his orders,” Malanga told a military court, denying they had any involvement in plotting the coup attempt.

He said he had come to Congo to see his father, whom he had not seen since 2021, at his invitation, adding he had not visited the country before.

“I am American, I do not speak French or Lingala,” he told the military court in the capital Kinshasa.

Malanga and Zalman-Polun are among over 50 people that include U.S., British, Canadian, Belgian and Congolese citizens standing trial following the failed coup.

They face various charges including illegal arms possession, criminal conspiracy, and terrorism, attempts to destabilise state institutions and undermine the integrity of the state, some of which risk the death penalty or lengthy prison sentences.

Zalman-Polun told the court that he was a long-time business associate of Malanga but had nothing to do in planning the coup attempt.

“I met Malanga in 2013, we always had relationships based on mining activities in Swaziland and Mozambique, he had never been so violent,” Zalman-Polun told the court.

The trial was adjourned until Monday July 8.