Washington D.C. – VOA News, February 25, 2025
The United States says its embassy in the Democratic Republic of Congo continues to attend legal proceedings and closely follow developments in the case of three detained U.S. citizens who face the death penalty. The U.S. State Department declined to comment on whether negotiations are underway to secure their release.
Over the weekend, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy for hostages, Adam Boehler, noted in a social media post that the three Americans are still being held by the DRC government.
In September 2024, a military court in the DRC sentenced 37 people to death, including three Americans — Tyler Thompson Jr., Marcel Malanga and Benjamin Reuben Zalman-Polun — for their role in a failed coup in the Central African nation in May 2024.
A State Department spokesperson told VOA on Monday, “The United States supports DRC authorities upholding a fair and transparent legal process,” adding that U.S. Ambassador to Congo Lucy Tamlyn and embassy staff in Kinshasa have been communicating with their counterparts at the highest levels of the DRC government throughout the process.
The U.S. State Department has not declared the three Americans to be wrongfully detained.
