– It is clear that this is something that everyone stands by and supports Anders on. We know history in a different way than what has been revealed, says Hans Peter Olsen to news. He lives with the daughter of Anders Besseberg, but has also been central to Norwegian biathlon for a number of years. On Thursday, he was a witness in the trial against Besseberg. Now he talks about how the trial against the former biathlon president also affects those closest to Besseberg. Supports Besseberg Besseberg is charged with gross corruption, but pleads not guilty after the indictment. Prosecutors accuse him of accepting bribes in the form of prostitutes offered by Russians, exclusive watches and fancy hunting trips. In the indictment, one of the points is also a leasing car paid for by a company that procured marketing agreements. The trial is now in its fourth week. But it is almost six years since the police campaigned against Besseberg’s farm at Vestfossen in April 2018. – Very demanding. It has been demanding all the way for the family. For everyone, says Hans Peter Olsen to news about the case against Besseberg. – He is an upright man, who wanted the best for the sport of biathlon all the way. That has been his focus. A man who is not concerned with material goods at all, says Olsen about the man he also got to know privately from 2015. Previously, he had gotten to know Besseberg through positions in biathlon, including as race director of the World Cup in Holmenkollen. 2018: Anders Besseberg in an interview with news in April 2018. Then the police had taken action against his farm. He has not liked how people have spoken about Besseberg in connection with this case. Why various people have spoken out as they have, he believes, is a question for those concerned. – But I don’t think it’s right and it’s not true, says Olsen. He himself is often out as a judge at international level in biathlon. He has also been race leader for the World Cup in Holmenkollen for a number of years. – He has a good name and reputation out there in terms of the sporting side, that the sport of biathlon would not be where it is without him, says Olsen. Olsen, who has a lot of contact with the biathlon community, believes that this rumor also persists after the investigation into Besseberg became known. – Did you imagine that Anders Besseberg’s career would end here in court? – No, not at all. I guess we were all surprised when this happened in 2018, says Olsen and adds: – It has been a difficult time. ON THE WAY OUT: Hans Peter Olsen in Hokksund after he testified in the trial in Buskerud District Court. Besseberg has explained that the period after the police action against him was very tough. In court, he has described that he stood on the edge of the cliff for a period. Before the trial started, his defender Christian B. Hjort told news that Besseberg felt prejudged. He also pointed out that what a strain it is to spend six weeks in court in such a case. – But at the same time, this forum is where he gets the opportunity to respond to the accusations he has been the subject of for five and a half years, Hjort told news in December. Reacting to history When Hans Peter Olsen testified in court, he reacted to several things that have been said in court in recent weeks. This concerned, among other things, how he had been connected to a story about possible vote buying during the IBU congress in 2016. This congress, where Russian Tyumen was chosen as WC organizer, was characterized by rumors about Russian vote buying and stories about this afterwards. This was also a topic earlier in the trial when former biathlon president Erlend Slokvik testified. Slokvik then told, among other things, how another person in the Norwegian delegation had seen that envelopes were handed to some people before the election. Slokvik then named Olsen as this person. MANY YEARS PRESIDENT: Anders Besseberg was president of the International Biathlon Union for 25 years. Here during the World Cup in Tyumen in Russia in 2018. Photo: Sergey Rusanov / Shutterstock Olsen reacted to how his observation during the congress in 2016, where he was part of the Norwegian delegation, has since turned into something bigger. – I saw a person coming out of a Russian “stand” and had some papers with him, said Olsen. He explained that he reacted to this because this particular person should have been inside the congress hall. In advance, he had been told to follow what was happening around the Russian stand at the congress. Russian Tyumen was then a candidate for the WC in 2016. In court it was the former Norwegian biathlete president Erlend Slokvik who told about this story. – I repeated what he said, namely that he had seen that an envelope had been delivered. I have not said anything about what it contained. When I answered that with money, it applied to the representative who told me that the person in question had been offered it to rally in Tjumen, writes Erlend Slokvik in a message to news. He was also served a story about an attempt to buy Russian votes, from a representative from another country during this congress. NORWEGIAN DELEGATION: The Norwegian biathlon stars Erlend Slokvik and Tore Bøygard during the congress in 2016, where there were a number of rumors and stories about vote buying. Photo: Hans Henrik Løken / news Olsen made it clear that he himself only reacted that the person he saw should have been inside the congress hall. – I never asked the person concerned what was in the envelope or the papers. I just wondered why the person was not inside the congress hall, says Olsen. – Never said Olsen also believed that wrong information had come to light in connection with the Taylor report. It was an investigative report on the Besseberg case, commissioned by the International Biathlon Union. Olsen pointed to how the current general secretary Max Cobb had come up with a story, that Olsen had seen two people talking about money in an envelope during the congress in 2016. – I never said that. I have not spoken to Max Cobb about this here, said Olsen. Olsen said that he had been upset by how a person he has never spoken to about the case dragged him into the investigation report in this way. – I do not comment on anything that is said about the trial while it is ongoing, Cobb reports to news after Olsen’s testimony. The bells in the indictment also became a topic in court. Olsen explained that he was quickly made aware of the watches in question from Besseberg when they became known privately in 2015. This was something that, among other things, was told about in connection with, for example, family dinners. REFEREE: Olsen is a referee at international level in biathlon. Here from the WC in 2019 Photo: BILDBYRÅN Olsen also distanced himself from the Russian Aleksander Tikhonov, who has repeatedly become the subject of court proceedings, including through a watch that was seized by the police in 2018. Besseberg has denied that he agreed to receive that watch from the former Russian biathlete, who ran several times as a counter-candidate against Besseberg in the presidential election. – I have never heard a single positive word about that man in the biathlon community, Olsen said of Tikhonov. – I myself have experienced him. I know of people who are afraid of him. I don’t think Anders has ever been like that, Olsen said in court.
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