Three Americans, convicted of their role in an unsuccessful coup in the Democratic Republic of Congo last year, have transferred their death sentences to life imprisonment, the presidency said.
They were among 37 people Sentenced to death last September by a military courtS
The three were accused of leading an attack on both the Presidential Palace and the home of President Felix Tshiseked's ally last May.
The conversion of the sentences comes before a visit to the Congo by the newly appointed US Senior Councilor for Africa Masad Bullos.
Bullos, the father -in -law of President Donald Trump's daughter, Tiffany, is expected to arrive in the capital of Congo, Kinshasa, on Thursday on a trip, which will also take him to Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.
The United States did not declare the three Americans wrongly imprisoned in Congo, but the State Department said there were talks between the parties in the issue earlier.
The three were convicted of criminal conspiracy, terrorism and other accusations they denied.
Suspecting story leader Christian Malanga, an American citizen of Congoan descent, was killed during the attack, along with five others.
A total of 51 people were tried in a military court, with hearing broadcast on national television and radio.
Fourteen people were justified and released, with the court finding that they had no connection with the attack.
The death sentences have not been executed in the Congo for approximately two decades and sentenced to be sentenced, they usually serve a life imprisonment.
The government canceled this moratorium in March this year, citing the need to remove “traitors” from the dysfunctional army of the nation. However, no penalties have been committed since then.
President Tshisekedi signed orders to travel on the death sentences of Americans on Tuesday, spokeswoman Tina Salama said in a television statement.
The three – Marcel Malanga Malu, Tilor Thomson and Zalman Police Benjamin – received an “individual reconciliation” from the president, according to Salama.
Ckiness Ciamba, one of Malanga's lawyers, told the Reuters Agency that “the presidential pardon is the first step that promises major changes in the future.”
Jean-Jacques Wondo, a double Congoan and Belgian citizen, who was also sentenced to death, was transferred to Belgium in February for poor health. It is unclear if Americans can also be sent home to serve their sentences.
It is also unclear whether the other convicted, who include a Briton, a Belgian and a Canadian citizen, will also transfer their sentences.
The coup attempt began in Kinshasa in the early hours of May 19, when armed men first attacked the parliamentary speaker Vital Home's Home Home before heading for the president's official residence in the capital.
Witnesses say a group of about 20 attackers in an army uniform attacked the palace and a firing exchange followed.
Additional reporting from Emery Makumeno in Kinshasa & Natasha Booty in London