Tjostolv Moland (born 28 February 1981), is a Norwegian Army officer and security contractor arrested in May 2009 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and convicted (together with Joshua French) of murdering his (and French's) driver by gunshot and of espionage for Norway.
They are both former soldiers in the Norwegian Armed Forces, who later worked in the private security industry. The men claimed that their driver was murdered by gunmen who waylaid them. On September 8, 2009, they were both found guilty of all charges and sentenced to death by a military tribunal in the regional capital, Kisangani.[1][2][3][4][5] The Congolese government insists that the defendants were active duty Norwegian soldiers, contradicting the Norwegian government's insistence that they had no connection with Norway's military since 2007.
As of 2011, French is imprisoned in Kisangani (in the same prison cell as Moland) as a result of being sentenced to death.
On June 07, 2011 their prison cell was searched by officials including major Jean-Blaise Bwamulunda (one of the prosecutors from the trial).[6] US$ 2000 was confiscated from their prison cell.[7]
Moland is from Vegårshei in Aust-Agder county.
Moland served in The King's Guard and later the Telemark Battalion, where he held the rank of second lieutenant before his resignation in 2007.[8]
Moland (and French) later worked (for a Korean company) as security guards in the Gulf of Aden.[9]