The Norwegian prosecution on Thursday requested three years and seven months in prison against the former boss of the International Biathlon Federation (IBU), Anders Besseberg, tried for corruption after being offered luxury watches, prostitutes and hunting trips by Russian officials in particular.
“For the purposes of prevention, corruption must be treated in a particularly severe manner in such positions within a large organization,” stressed one of the prosecutors, Marthe Stømner Smestad, on the last day of a five-year trial. weeks in Hokksund, 60 kilometers west of Oslo.
The prosecution also demanded a fine of one million crowns (more than 88,000 euros).
Boss of the International Biathlon Federation (IBU) from 1993 to 2018, Mr. Besseberg, 77, admits to having accepted certain gifts but brushes aside the suspicions of corruption linked to it.
Between 2009 and 2018, according to the prosecution, he received three watches from Russian officials with a total value of more than 30,000 euros as well as wild boar and deer hunting trips, all expenses paid. He was also offered the services of prostitutes.
At the helm of the IBU when the institutionalized doping scandal in Russian sport broke out, notably at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, the Norwegian was initially accused of having allowed himself to be bribed to hide cases of Russian doping .
But that part of the charges was later dropped. In Norway, it is enough to receive undue favors, without necessarily exchanging compensation, for the offense of corruption to be constituted.
The shadow of Russia, however, loomed over the entire procedure.
According to the commission of inquiry launched by Olle Dahlin, Mr. Besseberg’s successor at the head of the IBU, the Norwegian had notably used all his weight to grant, despite the revelations on doping, the organization of the 2021 Worlds to Tyumen in Siberia.
These championships were finally reallocated to Pokljuka (Slovenia).
According to the prosecution, Mr. Besseberg also benefited from free hunting trips in Austria and the Czech Republic, and for seven years from a leased BMW X5, paid for by the broadcast rights company Infront.
The offense of “aggravated corruption” against the accused is punishable by ten years in prison in Norway.
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