Two Norwegians sentenced to death in DRC

Kinshasa - Two Norwegians were sentenced to death by a military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday for murdering a Congolese man in the northeast of the country in May, their lawyer said.

Tjostolv Moland, 28, and Joshua French, 27 - both former soldiers - were accused of killing their driver on May 5.

Defence lawyer Guillaume Likwela said the verdict was flawed because the men were not given an interpreter for the trial, which was carried out in French, which neither speaks.

Prosecutor Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Wabara told AFP "the convicts are people who refused to speak since the beginning of their trial, under advice from their lawyers."

Though it remains on the statute books, the death penalty is no longer applied in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it is commuted to life imprisonment.

Under Congolese law, the men could be tried in a military court because firearms had been used in the crime. - Sapa-AFP