Joshua French

Joshua Olav Daniel Hodne French (born 7 April 1982 in Re, Vestfold, Norway) is a Norwegian-born security contractor and former soldier. He was arrested in May 2009 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and convicted (together with Tjostolv Moland) of murdering his (and Moland's) driver by gunshot and of espionage for Norway. In 2013 he was still imprisoned at Prison Militaire Ndolo.

Moland and French are both former soldiers in the Norwegian Armed Forces, who later worked in the private security industry. The men claimed that their driver was murdered by gunmen who waylaid them. On September 8, 2009, they were both found guilty of all charges and sentenced to death by a military tribunal in the regional capital, Kisangani. The Congolese government insists that the defendants were active duty Norwegian soldiers, contradicting the Norwegian government's insistence that they had had no connection with Norway's military since 2007.

As of 2011, French is imprisoned in Kisangani (in the same cell as Moland) as a result of being sentenced to death.

Major Mofanza Yombo who is one of the judges who sentenced French to death, is a prisoner of the Central Prison of Kisanghani, as of July 2011.

Career

Joshua French grew up in the municipality of Re in Vestfold county. His mother is Norwegian and his father is British, and French has dual Norwegian and British citizenship.

Until 2006, French served in the Norwegian Armed Forces and was also employed in the British Army where he trained as a paratrooper. In 2006, he was admitted to the Telemark Battalion, the Norwegian Army's elite infantry unit, but was allegedly forced to resign in 2007 as he and his friend Moland were accused of having recruited military personnel into employment with private security companies.

Trial and conviction

Main article: Trial and conviction of Joshua French and Tjostolv Moland

Diplomats meeting in Democratic Republic of Congo

In 2013, France's then president on his visit to DRC suggested that prisoners French and Moland should be moved out of the situation of their six-man prison cell; five days later the two prisoners shared a cell of their own. (Britain's foreign ministry had contacted France's in advance, due to Joshua French being a British citizen—in addition to being a Norwegian citizen).)

After Moland's death, Morten Furuholmen (a former lawyer of the two prisoners) said "My opinion has been that there should have been more activity from the highest levels of politics, including meeting in Congo. Norway's foreign ministry has limited itself to short meetings during UN sessions in New York, together with one contact in Ethiopia. There hasn't been meetings in Congo [involving Norwegian diplomats and Congolese counterparts, in regards to Moland and French] as far as I know".