Top envoy may call foreign minister to Congo
The Local Norway - [email protected]
Published: 16 Dec, 2013 CET.
Updated: Mon 16 Dec 2013 12:01 CET
The top diplomat who travelled to the Democratic Republic of Congo this week has said Norway's foreign minister Børge Brende may need to travel personally to Kinshasa to secure the release of the Norwegian jailed there.
"We are considering sending Foreign Minister Brende to Congo, if it is appropriate," Kai Eide, a former UN special representative to Afghanistan, told Norway's NRK television channel. Eide is in the country to help Joshua French, a former soldier with joint Norwegian and British citizenship, who was last week accused of drugging and strangling Tjostolv Moland, the friend and business partner with whom he shared a cell in Kinshasa. Since Eide he arrived in the country on Thursday, he has met French every day and discussed the case when some Congolese officials. The new charges came after a joint investigation between Norway's National Crime Investigation Service and the Congolese police exonerated French, ruling that Moland's death had been suicide. "I have established a relationship of trust with Joshua French. It is crucial to the case, for he is the one I'm work for," Eide said. "He's an interesting and pleasant person to talk to, Naturally, we have discussed the case, but we also had nice conversations about politics and literature." French and Moland were arrested in Congo in 2009 and found guilty the following year of murdering their driver Abedi Kasongo. Both have always denied any guilt. Moland was found dead in his cell on August 18, four years after the two men were jailed.
Comments
See Also
"We are considering sending Foreign Minister Brende to Congo, if it is appropriate," Kai Eide, a former UN special representative to Afghanistan, told Norway's NRK television channel.
Eide is in the country to help Joshua French, a former soldier with joint Norwegian and British citizenship, who was last week accused of drugging and strangling Tjostolv Moland, the friend and business partner with whom he shared a cell in Kinshasa.
Since Eide he arrived in the country on Thursday, he has met French every day and discussed the case when some Congolese officials.
The new charges came after a joint investigation between Norway's National Crime Investigation Service and the Congolese police exonerated French, ruling that Moland's death had been suicide.
"I have established a relationship of trust with Joshua French. It is crucial to the case, for he is the one I'm work for," Eide said. "He's an interesting and pleasant person to talk to, Naturally, we have discussed the case, but we also had nice conversations about politics and literature."
French and Moland were arrested in Congo in 2009 and found guilty the following year of murdering their driver Abedi Kasongo. Both have always denied any guilt. Moland was found dead in his cell on August 18, four years after the two men were jailed.
Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.
Please log in here to leave a comment.