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Norwegian men get death sentence in Congo

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Anchor Marco Werman has details on the case of two Norwegian men who were sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo this week. The men were convicted of espionage and the murder of their driver.

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MARCO WERMAN: This week two Norwegian men were sentenced to death in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Joshua French and Tjostalv Moland were convicted of murder and espionage. The murder charge stems from the death of the two men’s driver. The espionage charge is related to the fact that French and Moland are former Norwegian soldiers. That’s why the Congolese court also ordered Norway to pay $60 million in compensation. It’s a murky case made even murkier because the two men also ran a private security business in Kampala, Uganda. I spoke to Tjostalv Moland’s mother Matilda about it. She told me that her husband Knut had warned their son not to go to Congo.

MATILDA MOLAND: When they left each other one of the last things his dad said to him, don’t go into Congo. But he has been traveling all over Africa. He’s been to Ethiopia. He has been to Somalia. He was staying in Kampala in Uganda. And he had been into Congo once earlier too but nothing happened.

WERMAN: This time something happened. Moland and French claim they and their Congolese driver were ambushed at night on a remote road by bandits. They say those bandits shot the driver. But the Congolese government says it was the Norwegians who shot him. One of the most disturbing images from the murder case is a photo of Moland the day after the murder. It shows him washing blood from a seat on the truck and he’s smiling. I asked Matilda Moland about that photograph.

MOLAND: They have told a story which went like this. They were attacked and the driver got killed. They took the car and drove on – this was all in the dark and of course in the middle of jungle it’s completely dark. So the next morning they saw the place where the driver had been sitting and there was a lot of blood there. And because they were still in a kind of shock after what had happened the night before and Joshua has probably said something funny to Tjostalv while he’s trying to clean the car and therefore he’s smiling. That is what I think what happened there.

WERMAN: That smiling face has become an iconic image of the case and exhibit A for the Congolese prosecutors. Knut Moland says he’s spoken to his son since the death sentence was announced. He says Tjostalv Moland and Joshua French are still hopeful.

KNUT MOLAND: It’s of course a horrible experience to receive the death sentence but they have hopes to get out of this so they are not completely depressed you can say.

WERMAN: And their hopes to get out of this are based on what?

MOLAND: The Norwegian government are negotiating with government of the Congo and they have been guaranteed that the death sentence will not be executed. And the foreign secretary of the government in Congo has also opened for a possibility for an extradition after the final sentence.

WERMAN: Why do you think the Congolese authorities have concluded that your son and Mr. French were spies?

MOLAND: That is very easy to say because it started as a robbery there in the forest and when they had a dead local man and two Europeans on the run then of course there will be lots of money in perusing the matter.

WERMAN: It sounds like what you’re saying is that this is all kind of frame up to get a bunch of money out of Norway and out of your son.

MOLAND: Absolutely, absolutely.

WERMAN: According to your ex-wife you told your son not to go to Congo. What did you know that he didn’t know?

MOLAND: Now you know I’m a sea captain and I’ve never been to Congo because it doesn’t have a lot of ports but I’ve been to most other countries in Africa. And I know that Congo is the most dangerous of them all. There has been riots of all sorts. There’s a lot of gorilla organizations. They believe that 5.7 million people has been murdered in genocides done by different groups and a lot of them have been done by the Congolese army.

WERMAN: The reality though is why foreigners do not go into the middle of the jungle. I mean it does strike me that at some point there’s either the conclusion that your son was very naïve which is hard to believe since he was working in central Africa or there was some bad intentions for being there in the fist place. I mean he was after all trying to set up this private security firm.

MOLAND: Well he has a security company. He had a security company in Kampala. And they were also arranging events, you know adventure events, for rich people like Indiana Jones trips and that sort of thing. And they were going into Congo to look at if that was possible.

WERMAN: What’s going to happen now?

MOLAND: It’s going to a higher court and it’s a bit unclear whether that’s a civilian or military high court because if it’s a military high court it means you have only repetition of you know the same case several times.

WERMAN: Knut Moland is the father of Tjostalv Moland, one of two Norwegians sentenced to death in Congo on murder and espionage charges. Norway by the way is denying the two men were spies and it refuses to pay the $60 million decreed by the Congolese court. Knut and Matilda Moland did receive some good news about their son this week. The Congolese government has promised not to execute Tjostalv Moland and Joshua French even if their death sentences are confirmed.

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