By Xan Rice

Two Norwegian security contractors convicted of murder and espionage in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will tomorrow begin an appeal against their death sentences. Joshua French, 27, who spent part of his early childhood in Margate and holds dual British citizenship, was arrested with Tjostolv Moland, 28, in eastern Congo in May after their driver was found shot dead. The men denied shooting Abedi Kasongo in the head, and said he had been killed during an attack by unknown gunmen.

During sentencing last month the chairman of the military tribunal in Kisangani described the defendants as Norwegian spies. Although both men had served in Norway’s elite Telemark battalion, the Norwegian government said that they had had no contact with the army or any other state organisation since 2007. Norway condemned the death sentence as “unacceptable” and also rejected a court ruling that it was liable for $60m in compensation.

Kari-Hilde French, French’s mother, said today that although she was sure her son and Moland were innocent, she expected the appeal to fail. “I have no hope because the hearing is in the same court in the same town, and everybody there believes they killed the driver,” she said in a telephone interview from Norway. French and Moland had previously worked as private military contractors in other parts of Africa, and claimed to be trying to set up their own security company before their arrest.

During the trial Congolese prosecutors said they had discovered Norwegian military ID cards, fake UN caps, and employee badges for a Norwegian security company called “Special Interventions Group” in the names of French and Moland. The company said the badges were obtained under false pretences.

A representative of the British embassy in Kinshasa is expected to attend the appeal, along with the men’s Norwegian lawyer. French, who had a British father, now dead, spent most of his youth in Norway after leaving the UK as a young boy, but returned for three years from the age of 19.

Read this story at The Guardian UK website by clicking here.

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BBC News – Joshua French, 27, and Tjostolv Moland, 28, were also accused of arms smuggling and espionage. They denied all charges.

They were held after their Congolese driver was found shot dead in May this year in the north-east of the country.

The two were ordered to pay $60m (£36m) damages. There was reportedly applause when the sentence was handed down at a military tribunal in Kisangani city.

By David Smith

Two alleged mercenaries from Europe are facing the death penalty in the Democratic Republic of Congo after being accused of murder and spying.

Looking pale behind unkempt beards, Joshua French, 27, and Tjostolv Moland, 28, both from Norway, were charged with murder, attempted murder, espionage, conspiracy and armed robbery after their driver was found dead with a gunshot wound to his head in May this year.

Norwegians Tjostolv Moland (l) and Joshua French (r) attend a military tribunal in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo. Photograph: Thomas Hubert/Reuters

“May it please the garrison military court to say that the accusations against Tjostolv Moland and Joshua [French] are established and to sentence them … to the death penalty,” the prosecutor, Major Jean Blaise Bwa Mulundu, told the court last week, according to Reuters.

Norway has strongly expressed concerns that the men are not receiving a fair trial. French himself said: “I don’t think any recognised nation would accept this trial in any way or accept any of the evidence.”

A murky chain of events led the two men to the grim military courtoom of Kisangani in the lawless east of Congo.

French and Moland were reportedly in the country to set up their own security company. The website Private Military Herald, which monitors the private security industry, claimed that Norwegian military ID cards, counterfeit UN hats and employee ID badges with both correct and false names were found by police at an apartment shared by the two men in Uganda.

The employee badges were believed to use the logo of a Norwegian security company, Special Interventions Group (SIG), on false pretences. A source at SIG said: “We were supposed to have a partnership with these guys a year ago but it didn’t happen. They decided to try it for themselves and start their own company. Unfortunately they chose our name and used our ID cards.”

The source added: “We don’t believe for a second these guys killed anyone. They’re just kids who went abroad, tried to think big and set up a company. I don’t have a bad word to say about them. They loved Africa and they did not want to be mercenaries.”

French and Moland had previously served in Norway’s armed forces. Norwegian diplomats say there has been no contact between the accused and their country’s military or any other official organisation since 2007.

It is not clear what the two accused were doing in the area. Former soldiers are frequently taken on by private security companies who have stepped up interest in the region due to oil discoveries under Lake Albert, which lies on the border between Congo and Uganda.

French and Moland have said that 47-year-old driver Abedi Kasongo was shot and killed when their car was attacked by gunmen on the road, 60 miles east of the town of Kisangani.

The men were travelling in Congo’s north-eastern Orientale province, which is still unstable and plagued by armed groups six years after the country’s war officially ended. But the region is starting to attract investors after the discovery of billions of barrels of oil on the Ugandan side of the border by London-listed Tullow Oil and Heritage Oil.

The prosecution demanded last week that Norway pay Congo $500bn in damages over the incident.

Mulundu requested the death penalty for each of the five charges against the two defendants. The verdict is expected to be handed down by the military court this week.