France, Aug. 25 -- Prosecutors in a military court in Democratic Republic of Congo have requested the death penalty for former leader Joseph Kabila who is on trial in absentia on charges including treason over alleged support for Rwanda-backed M23 armed group.Kabila's party, theParty for Reconstruction and Democracy(PPRD), called it "a sham trial that comes as no surprise."

The party's permanent secretary, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary called it"a political decision" that will be given ajudicial guise by the judges of the High Military Court.

"It is an unfair, unjust, even less balanced trial, which is also a non-event. We see hatred oozing from it towards someone who gave you everything," he told RFI's Kinshasa correspondent.

"This decisi...