– Now I really have to demand that you submit that conversation to a language expert, says Besseberg in an upset voice. – I cannot accept this being presented to the court, he continued. When the prosecution was to play one of Besseberg’s wiretapped conversations, there was complete confusion in Buskerud district court. – It is not Volker Schmid who is talking on that phone, says Besseberg. The prosecution thought they were playing a conversation between Besseberg and hunting companion and former top sponsor Volker Schmid in Infront (formerly APF). – We have to find out why it is like this, says prosecutor Marianne Djupesland in Økokrim after Besseberg reacted. – I think there was a slightly different tone in the way he talked. I think it is necessary to find out that what the defendant says is true, points out the judge in the case. Besseberg quickly said he could recognize the voice. – It is the Czech Kurt that we talked about yesterday, says Besseberg. Kurt is supposed to be a Czech who worked for the ski brand Kneissl, Besseberg said. No further questions were asked about the telephone conversation and the prosecution quickly proceeded with the questioning. – “Insider” Before this, the relationship with Volker Schmid was problematic in court on Thursday before the conversation, which caused Besseberg to react strongly, was played. Then Anders Besseberg rejected that the hunting trips with hunting companion Volker Schmid were anything other than private trips. These hunting invitations stopped after the police action against him. – This was not a business matter. Then you have completely misunderstood, says Besseberg about the hunting trips with Volker Schmid, whom he calls a very good hunting companion. A number of pretended hunting trips with Schmid are part of the indictment against Besseberg, which concerns gross corruption in the period 2009-2018. Besseberg pleads not guilty following the indictment. Besseberg has said that he used Schmid as a sparring partner and calls him a mentor for him in his role as biathlete president. – I saw him as an “insider”, Besseberg said in court. For Schmid was not just a hunting companion. He was first owner of the company APF Marketing, which arranged marketing agreements for the International Biathlon Federation. Later, the company was acquired by Infront, where Schmid was given an advisory role. It would cover the company’s needs to maintain the connection to Besseberg and the biathlon association. There were large financial interests involved. Also Infront part of the indictment against Besseberg. – Private invitation But was Schmid a private hunting companion or really looking for something else? That question troubled Økokrim throughout the day. Among other things through several seized e-mails. – I just have to say that all the invitations I received, even the first one that I explained about, I perceived as a private invitation because of our shared passion for hunting, Besseberg said in court. He considered both his own and Scmid’s interest in hunting to be quite extreme. – I do not dispute the trips or what I have shot, says Besseberg. The fact that hunting trips and hunting trophies have been paid for by Schmid, APF Marketing and Infront is part of the indictment. Besseberg described his own interest in hunting as follows. Anders Besseberg is questioned by Økokrim for six days in court. Here is a picture from 2017. Photo: Berit Roald / NTB – I would call it fanatical. I don’t hide that. It has been since I was a boy, said Besseberg in court. Along the way, Besseberg responded to the questions and felt he was repeating himself. On Wednesday, Besseberg seemed shaken by several pieces of information he called completely new. It concerned how Infront and key figures in biathlon operated in secret. But the next day there was more. Approved bill Besseberg was pressured after he was shown several e-mails that were sent between Volker Schmid and the management of Infront. Among other things, it concerned an e-mail from 2010. It was sent on the same day that Besseberg was invited by Schmid for a hunting trip. “I am happy to officially approve your bill for these activities as a member of the council,” one of the leaders of Infront wrote to Volker Schmid. Court signing of Besseberg and his defenders in court. Beseberg does not want to be photographed in court. Photo: Ane Hem / NTB -So here we also see that Volker Schmid, on the same day that he invites you, gets this approved as a business trip. Do you have any comments on that, asked the prosecutor. – No, nothing other than that I see this here now. There are things I don’t know about, said Besseberg. – What interest do you feel Volker Schmid had in spending time on this? – What I believe and mean here is of no importance. Schmid is called as a witness. He gets to answer such questions, said Besseberg. The invitations stopped Besseberg says he last hunted with Volker Schmid in 2017. – I can say that quite clearly. I have had a number of invitations after that, but I have said no, says Besseberg. – Have you been invited to hunt with Volker Schmid after 2018, asked the prosecutor. – No, not with Schmid, answers Besseberg. At the same time, emails and documents showed that a role for Schmid was also discussed in the IBU, as a member of a committee, while Besseberg was president. Besseberg emphasized that this was not adopted and that he was skeptical about this. Økokrim, for its part, believed that the documentation did not show Besseberg’s skepticism. After a series of questions about Schmid and the hunting trips, Besseberg finally pulled a “hunting crown” in court from one of the trips with Schmid. – I was going home to the elk hunt, so to speak. And then we get up where we had been sitting and were going to go. Then I told him the hunter, he started walking, I just have to pee first. And while I was standing there peeing, a deer came that was shootable. Not a capital deer, but one of the smaller ones. And he told me to shoot, and I did. While I’m peeing, to put it bluntly, Besseberg said, prompting laughter in the courtroom. Paid hunting trophies Besseberg has already said that he had a hunting trophy from Russia sent to his home in Norway. On Thursday, an e-mail from Austria about such trophies also became a topic in court. “I would like to send you your hunting trophy from 2007 (buck)”, writes an APF employee in an e-mail in April 2008. – That is certainly correct, says Besseberg, who does not quite remember what he shot on that hunting trip. – I personally think there is nothing special about it, says Besseberg. Anders Besseberg has also hunted in Russia. Here from March 2000. It is many years before the period to which the indictment applies. Photo: Jacob Lund’s image archive Other e-mails also showed how Infront paid for hunting trophies at the request of Volker Schmid: But it did not appear whether Besseberg had shot the animals. However, Økokrim believes it is relevant for estimating the value of trophies of such animals. But an email from an Infront manager in 2012 also showed that he saw it as important to maintain the hunt with Besseberg. Besseberg was also shown an e-mail in which it was stated that Schmid had received internal information in the biathlon association. It was about Russian candidates who were considered for the presidential election at a congress. – He was a sparring partner for me, explained Besseberg.
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