Eight soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), including five officers, were sentenced to death by a military court on Friday.
The charges stemmed from desertion and cowardice during a battle against M23 rebels in the war-torn eastern region of the country.
Prosecutors initially sought the death penalty for all 11 soldiers on trial, but the court in Goma acquitted three, finding insufficient evidence.
The condemned soldiers were accused of abandoning their posts while facing the M23, a Tutsi-led rebel group that reignited conflict in late 2021 by seizing territory in North Kivu province.
Lawyers for the convicted soldiers, including Alexis Olenga representing one of the officers, maintain their innocence.
Olenga claims the soldiers never fled their position at Lushangi-Cafe, a base near the strategic town of Sake.
This marks the first death sentence handed down in the DRC since 2003, when a moratorium on executions was lifted by authorities in March.
Lawyers, like Jean-Richard Buino representing Colonel Patient Mushengezi Shamamba, have vowed to appeal the verdict.
The case comes amidst wider concerns about potential infiltration within the Congolese military.
The struggle against the M23 rebels has exposed weaknesses, leading to arrests of military personnel, politicians, and business leaders suspected of collaborating with the enemy.
While capital punishment has been used in the DRC for the past two decades, particularly in military and militia cases,sentences were routinely commuted to life imprisonment.
This recent ruling reignites the debate on capital punishment,with human rights groups and the Catholic Church urging the government to abolish it entirely.
