Thousands rally in Kinshasa for video link with exiled Congo politician

Exiled opposition leader Moise Katumbi used a video link on Saturday to address thousands of opponents of President Joseph Kabila ahead of a December election that many hope will end his 17 years in power.
Katumbi, a millionaire businessman and former governor of Democratic Republic of Congo's copper-producing Katanga province, is seen as the opposition's leading candidate in the election.
But he has been in exile since May 2016, when prosecutors accused him of hiring foreign mercenaries. He was sentenced the following month to three years in prison for real estate fraud. He denies all the charges against him.
"I will return to Congo to end the suffering of the Congolese people," he told a rally, adding that he would form a coalition with the other main opposition leader, Felix Tshisekedi.
Katumbi has repeatedly promised to return to Congo to contest the election, and has yet to make good on the vow.
In a rare opinion poll published by New York University's Congo Research Group in March, Katumbi came out as the most popular of Congo's hypothetical presidential candidates, with 24 percent saying they would vote for him, followed by 13 percent for Tshisekedi.
The same poll found 80 percent had a negative opinion of Kabila.