News

Innocent adventurers or murdering spies brought to justice?

September 12, 2009 Edition 2

Thomas Hubert

kinshasa: Are they just a couple of rather na239ve Norwegian adventurers who decided to ride their motorcycles into one of the most dangerous places on earth and inevitably ran into some of the many murderous people who inhabit that part of the world?

Or are they arms smugglers, armed robbers, spies and murderers?

If a Congolese military court is to be believed, Norwegian nationals Tjostolv Moland, 28, and Joshua French, 27, are guilty of the latter.

If you believe them, they were just a couple of mates having fun until it all went horribly wrong.

The two former members of the Norwegian military were sentenced to death on Tuesday in Kisangani, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. They and the kingdom of Norway, which the local authorities believe was employing them to spy on the DRC, were also sentenced to pay more than $60 million (R453m) in damages to the Congolese government and to various individuals who filed civil lawsuits against them.

The two Norwegians are at no immediate risk of being put to death, as DRC President Joseph Kabila's policy has blocked all execution warrants since 2003.

The Norwegian government says the DRC has given assurances that they will not be executed, even if the appeal which their lawyers have declared is their intention fails.

Norway has rejected the spy charges and refuses to pay any civil damages claims.

The two men left Uganda, where Moland had established a private security company, at the end of April. They rode their motorbike through the rainforest across the DRC's war-torn eastern provinces and into Kisangani.

"It was just a boys' trip with a tent and a motorbike," French said in May in the detention centre of Kisangani military court.

Sources in Kampala's flourishing private security sector have described the two as "cowboys" without much expertise.

Although on a tourist visa, they were carrying Norwegian military ID cards valid until 2016 and 2017. They and the Norwegian military say they left the army in 2007.

After a short stay in Kisangani, they hired local driver Abedi Kasongo to drive them back to Uganda as their motorbike was not running properly.

Later that night, Kasongo's body was found shot on the road 109km east of the city. Moland and French claim that unknown gunmen assaulted them and that the attackers shot Kasongo dead. They admitted that they fled the scene with the car and took pictures as they escaped, including one of Moland wiping blood off the driver's seat.

The local military authorities arrested French on May 10 and Moland on May 15, and charged them with Kasongo's murder.

They based the accusation on testimonies by assistant driver Kismu Aradjabu and passenger Kepo Ayila, who were travelling with them. According to Aradjabu, the Norwegians asked the driver to take a break after nightfall and pretended to relieve themselves.

Moland then "took the gun and killed the driver", Aradjabu said.

Defence lawyers challenged Aradjabu and Ayila's testimony as they also filed a civil lawsuit for attempted murder on their person, claimed $10m in damages and being awarded $5 000 each.

Other evidence produced by the prosecution has been of patchy quality. To back the espionage charge, prosecutor Jean Blaise Bwa Mulundu exhibited a GPS, maps and a photo seized from Moland's phone, on which a white man in military beret points his finger to a map of Africa.

Bwa Mulundu described him as a "Norwegian military officer giving them instructions" for a "top secret mission". But the man was quickly identified as a local photographer wearing a British SAS beret. He said he took the photo as a joke in 2006.

Norwegian diplomats have been taking turns in Kisangani to monitor the case, which could turn into a headache for both countries.

Their appeal, if granted, would be heard in a higher local military court where the death sentences would probably be confirmed, lawyers say.

The next appeal would then be to the highest military court, in Kinshasa, which could take years.

If that fails but their sentences are reduced to prison terms or they are reprieved, the DRC government says it is ready to negotiate with Norway for them to serve part of their jail terms in Norway.