Congo Renews Death Sentence for Norwegian Pair

Norwegian defendants Joshua French (R) and Tjostolv Moland (L) sit in court as they listen during a military tribunal in the northern Democratic Republic of Congo that rejected an appeal to their death sentence in Kisangani on Dec. 3, 2009. The pair, both (Stringer/AFP/Getty Images)

Yesterday, a military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) re-sentenced two Norwegian men to death for killing their driver and spying for Norway.

The accused, Joshua French, 28, a British-Norwegian national and Tjostolv Moland, 29, both former Norwegian soldiers, say they are innocent.

A retrial was ordered in April after errors were found in the first military tribunal.

The DR Congo has asked the men and Norway to pay $65 million, according to the Associated Press.

Both the Norwegian and British governments oppose the sentences.

“There is no physical evidence against either French or Moland, and the two witnesses who testified against them and who were awarded large sums of money in compensation, have changed their stories countless times,” says U.K. legal charity, Reprieve.

The Norwegians say their motorcycles broke down on a trip from Uganda to the DR Congo and they hired a driver to take them back. They were ambushed on the road, and gunmen killed their driver according to a report by the BBC.

Police say they found Norwegian military ID cards, fake United Nations hats, and a number of employee ID badges for the security company, Special Interventions Group (SIG). The IDs had both the men’s real and forged names, according to the Private Military Herald, a private security news and analysis source.

A SIG source told the Guardian, in 2009, that a partnership between the company and the Norwegian men had fallen through. The SIG source added that they don’t believe the men killed anyone.