Joshua French

Last updated

Joshua French
Joshua French detail from portrait by Silje Hoydal 2015.jpg
Born
Joshua Olav Daniel Hodne French

(1982-04-07) 7 April 1982 (age 41)
Re, Vestfold, Norway
Citizenship British and Norwegian dual citizenship
OccupationSecurity contractor (former)
Criminal statusReleased in 2017
Conviction(s) Murder, espionage
Criminal penalty Death
Partner(s) Tjostolv Moland
Details
Victims Abedi Kasongo, 47
Date apprehended
May 2009
Imprisoned at Kisangani, DR Congo (2009-2017)

Joshua Olav Daniel Hodne French (born 7 April 1982) is a Norwegian-British man who was convicted of murder in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He worked as a security contractor with his friend Tjostolv Moland when they were arrested in May 2009, and he was later convicted of attempted murder, armed robbery, the formation of a criminal association and espionage for Norway, of which he and Moland were found guilty and sentenced to death. In 2014 he was also convicted of the murder of Moland. He was released in 2017 after serving 8 years of his sentence, and returned to Norway. [1]

Contents

The trial caused controversy in Norway and Europe, as his mother claimed a lack of physical evidence, and "a clear economic motive from the Congolese government". [2]

Biography

Early life

Joshua French grew up in the municipality of Re in Norway's Vestfold county. His mother is Norwegian and his father is British. French has dual Norwegian and British citizenship. [3]

French served in the Norwegian Armed Forces until 2006 and was also trained as a paratrooper in the British Army. [4] In 2006, he was admitted to the Telemark Battalion, the Norwegian Army's elite infantry unit, but was fired in 2007 when he and Moland were accused of having recruited military personnel into employment with private security companies. He has not had any military affiliation since 2007. [5]

Murder and conviction

After resigning from the army, French and Moland continued working in the private security sector, specializing in contracts in Africa. On 5 May 2009, their hired driver, 47-year-old Abedi Kasongo, was shot and killed near Bafwasende, Tshopo District, Orientale Province, Democratic Republic of Congo. [6] French was arrested on 9 May in the Epulu game reserve, around 200 kilometres (120 mi) from Kisangani. Moland was arrested two days later in the Ituri Province, a few hundred kilometres farther northeast. [7] The men claimed that their driver was murdered by gunmen who waylaid them, and claimed they had escaped the site due to fear that the gunmen would return for them.

On 8 September 2009, they were both found guilty and sentenced to death by a military tribunal in the regional capital, Kisangani. [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] The DRC government considered the defendants to be active duty Norwegian soldiers, contradicting the Norwegian government's insistence that they had had no connection with Norway's military since 2007. French also claimed that an autopsy was not performed on the murder victim. [13] In 2014 French was also convicted of the murder of Moland. [14] The trial received massive media coverage in Norway, with several forensic and legal experts calling for the Norwegian government to interfere with what they considered a "theatrical trial" in an attempt to extort money from the government.

Post-conviction and Moland's death

French and Moland began serving their sentence in Kisingani in 2009. While they were sentenced to death the execution of prisoners is uncommon in Congo and the sentence was by many considered "life in prison" rather than death. In 2011, they were transferred from the prison in Kisigani to the Ndolo prison in Kinshasha. [15]

During a state visit to DRC in 2013 French President Francois Hollande suggested that French and Moland should be moved from their six-man prison cell. Five days later the two prisoners were transferred to a shared "private" cell. [16] Britain's Foreign Ministry had requested intervention by Hollande, given French's status as a British national. [16] Later the same year, Bård Vegar Solhjell (Norwegian Minister of the Environment), who was in DRC for talks on rain forest projects, discussed the prisoners with authorities hoping to push for a potential transfer to a prison in Norway.

On 18 August 2013, Moland was found dead in his cell. French, who slept with ear-plugs, had noticed that Moland got out of bed. When Moland did not return from the adjoining bathroom French woke up and found his cellmate dead. The prison officials were notified at daybreak four hours later and opened up an investigation. DRC's minister of communications, Lambert Mende Omalanga, said that "we're trying to determine whether it was suicide or homicide. It looks like suicide but we're not sure". [17]

Soon after Moland's death rumors in DRC suggested that French may have been involved in Moland's death. [18] In response to this speculation, Norway sent a team of investigators from Kripos together with a forensic pathologist to Kinshasa. [19] A DRC official, General Major Tim Mukuntu, said that "we don't need the Norwegian investigators, but to show openness towards the Norwegians, we have said that it is ok that they come" but that DRC will still lead the investigation. [20] Norway's Foreign Ministry also posted a senior diplomat and press liaison officer to Kinshasa. French made a statement welcoming the arrival of the Norwegian investigation team. [18] The DRC minister of justice, Wivine Mumba Matipa, said "that she decided that Norwegian investigators had to participate during the investigation, so that speculation would stop." [21] Matipa also wanted an observer from EU alongside the Norwegians. [21]

Following the death, Morten Furuholmen, former lawyer for the two prisoners, said that "there should have been more activity from the highest levels of politics, including meeting in Congo. Norway's Foreign Ministry limited contacts with congolese authorities to short meetings during UN sessions in New York, together with one contact in Ethiopia. There haven't been meetings in Congo as far as I know". [22]

In December 2013, Congolese authorities charged French with the murder of Moland by strangulation. According to the charges, French drugged Moland before the murder. The charges were met with surprise by Norwegian police and civil authorities. The Norwegian investigators had concluded that Moland had "beyond doubt" committed suicide. In May 2014, French was found guilty and given a second death sentence. [23]

During his incarceration, French's health declined drastically and he made several escape attempts to get medical treatment. In January 2016, French fell seriously ill and was hospitalized. He returned to prison six months later. [24] During this time, negotiations continued to win his release or a prison transfer to Norway.

Release and return

After serving eight years in DR Congo, French was released on 17 May 2017 and returned to Norway the next day. In the official statement, the release is attributed to "health and family grounds". [25] The process of having him transferred to Norway had begun several weeks before, but was not made public until after the plane carrying French had landed on Norwegian soil. French has always claimed his innocence, and maintains that both he and Moland were wrongfully convicted. [26] Upon his return to Norway, French was hospitalized and treated in isolation for infections caused by multi-resistant bacteria. He was released from hospital in August 2017, and is currently residing at a hidden location with family members. [27]

Documentary film

Congolese film director Djo Munga began working on a documentary film about French and Moland, originally slated for a 2014 release. [28] Munga said that "media has been one sided and unfair to Congo in their coverage of this case. So in this film I will start by showing who the Congolese are and what they care about". [28] As of October 2017, the film has not yet been released.

The 2018 Norwegian film Mordene i Kongo was released giving a dramatized account of the events. [29] As of 2018, French is giving a series of talks about his experiences, and is also working on a book. [30]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mullah Krekar</span> Founder and 1st leader of the Islamic Emirate of Byara and Ansar al-Islam

Najmudin Vahid Faraj Ahmed, better known as Mullah Krekar, is an Iraqi Kurdish Sunni Islamic scholar and militant who was the founder and former leader of Islamist militant group Ansar al-Islam. He is currently serving a prison sentence in Italy, after having been extradited from Norway in 2020. He came to Norway as a refugee from Iraqi Kurdistan in 1991. His wife, Rukhosh Ahmad, and his four children have Norwegian citizenship, but not Krekar himself. He speaks Kurdish, Arabic, Persian, Norwegian and English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telemark Battalion</span> Military unit

The Telemark Bataljon is a mechanised infantry battalion of the Norwegian Army. It was established in 1993, and is a part of Brigade Nord and stationed at Rena, Hedmark. The battalion consists of five companies/squadrons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knut Storberget</span> Norwegian lawyer and politician

Knut Storberget is a Norwegian lawyer and politician for the Labour Party. He is currently serving as the county governor of Innlandet since 2019. He previously served as Minister of Justice under Jens Stoltenberg from 2005 to 2011. He was also an MP for Hedmark from 2001 to 2017, and deputy MP for the same constituency from 1993 to 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fredrik Fasting Torgersen</span>

Fredrik Ludvig Fasting Torgersen was a Norwegian man who was convicted of murder in 1958 in a much-debated case, and released from prison in 1974.

Erik Andersen, also referred to in the media as The Pocket Man, is a convicted Norwegian child molester from Bergen. He was arrested in 2008, accused of molesting hundreds of children since 1976, and in 2010, he was convicted and sentenced to preventive detention with a minimum term of 9 years, with the possibility of extension for as long as he is deemed a danger to society. He was released in November 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baneheia murders</span> Norwegian double murder in 2000

The Baneheia murders was a double rape and murder that occurred in Norway on 19 May 2000. The victims were two girls, 10-year-old Lena Sløgedal Paulsen and 8-year-old Stine Sofie Austegard Sørstrønen. They were found raped and killed in the Baneheia area in Kristiansand. The murders received massive media attention in Norway in the early 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mazyar Keshvari</span> Norwegian politician

Mazyar Keshvari is an Iranian-born Norwegian former politician for the Progress Party and a convicted felon who is serving two prison sentences for fraud and violent threats. He was elected as a substitute member of the Norwegian parliament for the city of Oslo in 2013, representing the right-wing and anti-immigration Progress Party, and attended parliamentary sessions from 2013 to 2018 as the substitute of the mandate holder Siv Jensen who has been on leave from parliament during her government service. As a politician he was known for taking a hard stance on immigration, calling for a complete ban on further immigration to Norway, a stop to the practice of accepting asylum seekers in Norway, and the deportation of immigrants convicted of crimes. In 2019 he was convicted of aggravated fraud for defrauding the Norwegian parliament and in 2020 he was sentenced to 11 months imprisonment. He left the Norwegian parliament following his indictment in 2018 and also left the Progress Party in October 2019. In 2019 he was also arrested and charged with making violent threats, and he was convicted and sentenced to an additional four months in prison in 2020.

The sentence of life imprisonment under Norwegian law is restricted to the military penal code. In the civilian penal code, a law passed in 2002 allows for an indeterminate penalty that could, in theory, result in life imprisonment. The first Norwegian prisoner ever sentenced to the 21 years' preventive detention was Viggo Kristiansen, who was convicted of murder and rape, but exonerated in 2022.

Tjostolv Moland was a former Norwegian army officer and private security contractor or ex-mercenary arrested in May 2009 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and convicted of murdering their driver and espionage for Norway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Democratic Republic of the Congo–Norway relations</span> Bilateral relations

Democratic Republic of the Congo – Norway relations refer to the bilateral relations between Democratic Republic of the Congo and Norway. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is represented by a non-resident embassy in London. There are 1,930 DR Congolese people living in Norway. The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs discourages people to travel to the northern and eastern parts of the Congo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Death of Kaja Ballo</span> Norwegian student

Kaja Bordevich Ballo was a Norwegian university student who took her own life in Nice, France, on March 28, 2008, shortly after taking an Oxford Capacity Analysis (OCA), a personality test administered by the Church of Scientology, earlier the same day. Family and friends state that Ballo was happy prior to taking the OCA, and that her mood dramatically shifted after receiving the results; she jumped from the fourth floor of her dorm room hours later. In addition to a suicide note, Ballo's family found the OCA among her belongings. French police investigated connections between Scientology and Ballo's death, and interviewed two leaders of the Church of Scientology in France; prosecutors stated in December 2008 that they were unable to establish a causative link.

The trial and conviction of Joshua French and Tjostolv Moland followed their arrest in May 2009, and their being charged with killing their hired driver, 47-year-old Abedi Kasongo, on May 5, 2009, at Bafwasende, Tshopo District, Orientale Province, Democratic Republic of Congo. French was arrested on May 9 in the Epulu game reserve, around 200 kilometres (120 mi) from Kisangani. Moland was arrested two days later in the Ituri Province, a few hundred kilometres farther northeast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trond Birkedal</span> Norwegian politician

Trond Birkedal is a former Norwegian Progress Party politician who occupied a number of senior posts in his party, including as chairman of the Youth of the Progress Party and member of Progress Party's central executive committee and national board.

Sigrid Giskegjerde Schjetne was a Norwegian teenager who disappeared from the streets of suburban Oslo while walking in the early hours of Sunday, 5 August 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Faiza Ashraf</span> Murder of Pakistani-Norwegian woman

Faiza Ashraf was a 26-year-old Pakistani-Norwegian woman who was kidnapped early in the morning on 3 February 2010 from a bus-stop at Haslum in Bærum, outside of Oslo, while on her way to work. She was later found murdered near the parking lot in Solli, in the neighboring municipality of Asker.

Rune Øygard is a former Norwegian politician representing the Norwegian Labour Party, who served as mayor of Vågå from 1995 to 2012 when he was granted leave following his indictment for child sexual abuse in a much publicized case, the so-called Vågå case. On 17 December 2012, he was found guilty of child sexual abuse, including sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl, and sentenced to 4 years imprisonment. The same day, he resigned as mayor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orderud case</span> 1999 triple murder in Norway

The Orderud case was a triple murder that occurred in Norway on 22 May 1999. The victims were 47-year-old Anne Orderud Paust; her mother, 84-year-old Marie Orderud; and her father, 81-year-old Kristian Orderud, who were found shot and killed at their country estate in Sørum, Akershus.

Terrorism in Norway includes a list of major terrorist incidents where organized groups and lone wolves have tried carrying out attacks. In recent years, there has been a rise mostly of Islamic extremism and far-right violence and various groups have been suspected of terrorism plans.

Geir Eriksen, former names Geir Selvik and Geir Selvik Malthe-Sørenssen, is a Norwegian con artist and convicted felon. He formerly worked as a private investigator for criminal clients, and became known for fabricating material in the Arne Treholt case; it was subsequently revealed that he had engaged in similar fraud in a large number of other cases. He was charged with aggravated fraud and forgery; he pled guilty to all charges and in 2018 was sentenced to three years in prison and to pay 7 million kr in restitution. As of 2021 Malthe-Sørenssen was an inmate at Romerike Prison. He has changed his names several times, but is best known under the name Geir Selvik Malthe-Sørenssen, his legal name from 2010 to 2017. In 2021 his former wife Ida Marie Hansen published the book Jeg var gift med en bedrager about the Malthe-Sørenssen case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emilie Mehl</span> Norwegian politician (born 1993)

Emilie Enger Mehl is a Norwegian politician for the Centre Party. She has served as minister of justice since 2021 and member of parliament for Hedmark since 2017.

References

  1. ↑ "Joshua French tilbake i Norge i dag - løslatt i går". vg.no.
  2. ↑ NRK (24 February 2017). "Kari Hilde French: – Jeg angrer på at jeg ikke kjøpte Joshua fri". nrk.no.
  3. ↑ Eide tror det blir lettere å få utlevert French nå, Bergens Tidende, 19 August 2013, (Norwegian)
  4. ↑ Kjæresten min er ingen leiemorder, Dagbladet, 27 May 2009. (Norwegian)
  5. ↑ Tvunget ut av Forsvaret, Aftenposten, 2 September 2009. (Norwegian)
  6. ↑ DOMMEN fra ankesaken 3. December 2009 (norsk). Freefrenchandmoland.com (2009-09-08). Retrieved on 2013-08-19.
  7. ↑ Congo court sentences Norwegians to death, AFP (via Google News), September 8, 2009.
  8. ↑ Norwegians given death sentence by Congo court, The Norway Post, September 8, 2009.
  9. ↑ Court in Congo sentences two Norwegians to death, Guardian, 8 September 2009]
  10. ↑ "Norwegians sentenced to death in Congo". 4vf.net.
  11. ↑ Norwegians to die for Congo spying, The Daily Nation, 8 September 2009.
  12. ↑ Smith, David (1 September 2009). "European 'mercenaries' face death penalty in Congo". The Guardian . London. Retrieved 18 May 2010.
  13. ↑ "French: - Det er tydeligvis noen som er ute etter å skylde på meg". aftenposten.no.
  14. ↑ "French dømt for å ha drept Moland". vg.no.
  15. ↑ "Her skal Moland og French sone". nrk.no. 2 December 2011.
  16. 1 2 "Moland og French har fått egen celle etter hjelp fra François Hollande". vg.no.
  17. ↑ Kinshasa, Reuters in (19 August 2013). "Norwegian jailed in Congo on murder charge dies in prison". the Guardian.{{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  18. 1 2 NRK (21 August 2013). "– Kan være ansvarlig for dødsfallet". nrk.no.
  19. ↑ "Ventet fire timer før han varslet om Molands død". vg.no.
  20. ↑ "- Joshua er ikke mistenkt for Tjostolv Molands død". dagbladet.no. 21 August 2013.
  21. 1 2 "Kripos får ikke delta i Moland-etterforskning". aftenposten.no.
  22. ↑ "Forfatter: - Dette er noe jeg har fryktet". vg.no.
  23. ↑ Solholm, Rolleiv (11 December 2013). "Norwegian charged with murder of compatriot in Congo". The Norway Post. NRK . Retrieved 24 December 2013.
  24. ↑ "Moren til French: – Joshua er tilbake i fengselet". vg.no.
  25. ↑ Erlend Skevik and Oda Leraan Skjetne (17 May 2017). "Joshua French er løslatt fra fengselet i Kongo". Verdens Gang . Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  26. ↑ "ABC News". ABC News.
  27. ↑ "Joshua French out of the hospital". www.newsinenglish.no.
  28. 1 2 NRK (17 December 2013). "Vil lage film om French og Moland". nrk.no.
  29. ↑ IMDB. "Mordene i Kongo". IMDb .
  30. ↑ Dagbladet (13 October 2018). "Dette gjør han nå". dagbladet.no.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.