Tjostolv Moland
| Tjostolv Moland | |
|---|---|
| Born |
28 February 1981 Vegårshei, Aust-Agder, Norway. |
| Died | 18 August 2013 (aged 32) Prison Militaire Ndolo, Kinshasa, DR Congo |
| Criminal penalty | Death |
| Conviction(s) | Murder, espionage |
| Killings | |
| Victims | One |
| Country | DR Congo |
|
Date apprehended
|
May 2009 |
Tjostolv Moland (28 February 1981 – 18 August 2013) was a former Norwegian army officer and security contractor arrested in May 2009 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and convicted (together with Joshua French) of murdering their driver and espionage for Norway.
One day after he died, The Guardian said that his "death overshadowed even the upcoming elections in Norway's media." Furthermore, Reuters claimed that "The death penalty was later overturned by Congo's military high court"—without mentioning that the prisoners were sentenced to death at the next trial.
Moland was born and raised in Vegårshei, Aust-Agder county, Norway. He joined the army when he was nineteen, served in The King's Guard and later the Telemark Battalion, where he held the rank of second lieutenant before his resignation in 2007. During his tenure as an army officer, he befriended grenadier Joshua French, a fellow soldier in the Telemark Battalion. After leaving the military, they both worked in the private security industry for a Korean company as security guards in the Gulf of Aden.
In 2009, a manhunt ensued after Moland and French were suspected in the shooting of their driver, who was found dead in the car in which the three had been riding. The men claimed that their driver was murdered by gunmen who waylaid them, and that they escaped from them on foot. On 8 September 2009, a DRC military tribunal in Kisangani (the capital of Orientale Province) found them both guilty of all charges and sentenced them to death. The Democratic Republic of the Congo government insists that the defendants were active-duty Norwegian soldiers, contradicting Norway's insistence that they had no connection with its military since 2007. "The rulings drew immediate international protests amid claims of miscarriages of justice."
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Wikipedia