Joshua French

Joshua Olav Daniel Hodne French (born 7 April 1982) is a Norwegian-born security contractor and former soldier. He was arrested in May 2009 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DCR), 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 both formerserved in the Norwegian Armed Forces and 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 DCR 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. French claimed that an autopsy was not performed on the murder victim.

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

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

Trial and conviction
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.

Diplomats meeting in Democratic Republic of Congo
During a state visit to DCR in 2013, French President Francois Hollande suggested that French and Moland should be moved out of their six-man prison cell and five days later the two prisoners were transferred to a shared cell of their own. Britain's Foreign Ministry had requested intervention by Hollande, given French's status as a British national.

In March 2013 Bård Vegar Solhjell in DRC talked about the prisoners with authorities. The main purpose of his trip pertainded to rain forest projects.

Tjostolv Moland's death
Moland was found dead in his cell on 18 August 2013 by French. French, who slept with ear plugs, had noticed that Moland got out of bed, but when he did not return from the adjoining bathroom, he woke up and found his cellmate dead. The prison officials were notified four hours later, and began investigating. DRCs 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".

Soon after the death, there was speculation in DCR that French may have been involved in Moland's death. In response to this speculation, Norway sent a team of investigators from Kripos together with a forensic pathologist to Kinshasa. 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", while DRC will still lead the investigation. 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. The DCR Minister of Justice, Wivine Mumba Matipa, said "that she decided that Norwegian investigators had to participate during the investigation, so that speculation would stop." Matipa also wanted an observer from EU alongside the Norwegians.

Following the death, Morten Furuholmen, a former lawyer for the two prisoners, expressed his opinion 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 haven't been meetings in Congo as far as I know".

Reactions also pertaining to prisoner French's case
A 20 August 2013 Aftenposten article quoted Ingrid Samset (a political scientist) that a publicized suggestion of holding back development aid funds for "the war-torn nation" to pressure DR Congo is not advisable, but instead Norway ought to open an embassy in DR Congo and invest in other ways also—to show that DR Congo is a nation that Norway cares about—even after Moland's death.