Lawyer for 2 Utahns facing death sentence over Congo coup attempt files appeal [Video]

KINSHASA, Congo — The lawyer for three Americans sentenced to death in Congo on charges of participating in a coup attempt, including two Utah men, filed an appeal Tuesday, he told The Associated Press.

A military court in Congo handed down death sentences last Friday to 37 people, including three young Americans, after convicting them on charges of participating in a coup attempt.

The defendants, most of them Congolese but also including a Briton, Belgian and Canadian, had five days to appeal the verdict on charges that include attempted coup, terrorism and criminal association. Fourteen people were acquitted in the trial.

Congo reinstated the death penalty earlier this year, lifting a more than two-decade-old moratorium, as authorities struggle to curb violence and militant attacks in the country. The men convicted in the coup attempt would likely be executed by firing squad.

Congo is a member of the Treaty of Rome, and because of that the reinstatement of …