Dual British-Norway national freed from Congo jail-Norway broadcaster

Record ID: 876302

  • Title: Dual British-Norway national freed from Congo jail-Norway broadcaster
  • Date: 17th May 2017
  • Summary: KISANGANI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (FILE - AUGUST 2009) (REUTERS) DEFENDANTS, TJOSTOLV MOLAND (LEFT) AND JOSHUA FRENCH (RIGHT) SEATED IN COURT PROSECUTOR TALKING, FRENCH AND MOLAND LISTENING PEOPLE IN COURT ROOM, JUDGES KISANGANI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (FILE - MAY 2010) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEFENDANT, JOSHUA FRENCH, SAYING: "We are going to explain exactly what we've done before, about the fifth of May, 2009, when our driver was shot dead by armed bandits, in eastern Congo, so we are going to tell the same explanation, which is the truth, which we have already been telling now for three previous trials." VARIOUS OF FRENCH AND MOLAND BEING QUESTIONED BY JUDGES JUDGES
  • Embargoed: 31st May 2017 17:47
  • Keywords: trial driver Norway murder espionage Joshua French Congo
  • Location: KISANGANI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
  • City: KISANGANI, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO
  • Country: Congo, Democratic Republic of
  • Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016H8A2PZ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: QUALITY AS INCOMING
    EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3
    A man serving a life sentence in jail in Democratic Republic of Congo for murder and espionage has been freed and could return to his native Norway as early as Wednesday (May 17), Norwegian public broadcaster NRK said.
    Joshua French, who also holds a British passport, was convicted along with fellow Norwegian Tjostolv Moland of killing their Congolese driver and spying in 2009 and were initially sentenced to death before their sentence was commuted.
    The men, both former soldiers, denied the charges, saying that they had been setting up a local security business and that their driver had been shot and killed by gunmen when their car was attacked.
    Moland was found dead in his cell in a military prison in August 2013 and a Congolese military court found French guilty of his murder.
    A Norwegian forensics team sent to Congo as part of Norway's consular assistance to French told the court that Moland had hanged himself.
    The Norwegian government, which denied the two men had been spying for Norway, had been seeking to have them transferred to Norway to serve their sentences.
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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