appeared in a military court in the country’s capital, Kinshasa, on Friday, along with dozens of other defendants who were lined up on plastic chairs before the judge on the first day of the hearing.
Malanga’s 21-year-old son Marcel Malanga, who is a U.S. citizen, and two other Americans are on trial for their alleged role in the attack. All three requested an interpreter to translate the proceedings from French to English. His stepmother, Miranda Thompson, told The Associated Press that the family found out about the hearing too late to arrange travel to Congo, but hoped to be present for future court dates. Before this week, the family hadMiranda Thompson had worried that her stepson might not even be aware that his family knew he’d been arrested. On Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Congo told the AP it had yet to gain access to the American prisoners to provide consular services before the trial.
“As a mother, my heart is crying each day,” Sawyer wrote on her crowdfunding page. “My main goal each day is to bring him home.”