Joshua French

Joshua French
Born	Joshua Olav Daniel Hodne French (1982-04-07) 7 April 1982 (age 35) Re, Vestfold, Norway.
Criminal penalty	Death
Conviction(s)	Murder, espionage
Killings
Victims	One
Country	DR Congo
Date apprehended	May 2009

Joshua Olav Daniel Hodne French (born 7 April 1982) is a Norwegian man convicted of murder and a former security contractor and soldier. He was arrested in May 2009 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) along with Tjostolv Moland, and convicted of attempted murder, armed robbery, the formation of a criminal association and espionage for Norway, and in 2014 he was also convicted of murder. He was released in 2017 after serving 8 years of his sentence.

Moland and French both formerly served 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 8 September 2009, they were both found guilty and sentenced to death by a military tribunal in the regional capital, Kisangani. The DRC government considered the defendants to be 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. In 2014 French was also convicted of the murder of Moland.

French was released on 16 May 2017 and returned to Norway the next day. Joshua French has always claimed his innocence.

Joshua French grew up in the municipality of Re in Norway's 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.

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