Anders Besseberg is either the well-intentioned shop steward from a small place in Buskerud who has only worked to promote the sport he loves so much – or the sports junkie who has slowly but surely allowed himself to be corrupted and tempted to push all ethical boundaries. Regardless of what the court concludes, he is a passionate hunter. According to the prosecution on several levels. But after more than a week of meticulous questioning by the prosecution, the hunter has started to have enough. Anders Besseberg was unable to stay away from the teaching role towards the end of the second week in the district court. Hunting talk Then, for the second day, the court was in a detailed review of hunting terrain, hunting friends – who were also business associates of the association he led – and not least technical details about this hunting. Subject hunting. Or maybe art, if you sit and listen to Besseberg. This includes pheasant chicks, categorization of deer antlers (“That’s a ten-horned one, it seems. No red deer, but a good class 2A or B”) and mouflons. The latter is a genus of sheep with very characteristic horns, which lives in Eastern Europe. But also misunderstandings. The last day of the week in court opened with a downright angry Besseberg, who wanted to have a settlement with the prosecution’s playback of an audio clip from the police’s secret wiretapping the day before, which turned out to be with a different person than what was alleged, which Besseberg immediately pointed out. The prosecution apologized and apparently went on with its evidence quite unmoved. But that’s not the only misconception the passionate hunter keeps coming back to. Earlier in the trial, the prosecutor called a hunting prey that was shown a picture of a bear. It turned out to be a wolverine. Something that obviously provoked Besseberg. Defender Christian Hjort simply replied dryly “this is something even Hjort understands”. While others probably thought this was an involuntary picture of the whole case: Is Besseberg a bear or just a wolverine? Anders Besseberg hunting in Russia in March 2000, many years before the period to which the indictment applies. Photo: Jacob Lund’s image archive Naive or ruthless? It is still difficult to say whether the prosecution is engaging in naive cunning or is simply a little unprepared for the consequences of its own wealth of detail. Everything of course indicates the first after nearly 6 years of preparation. But the accused hunter nevertheless clearly expresses the opposite. The last two days of the questioning have, on the whole, shown a Besseberg who is somehow on his way out of the confirmation role and back into the ranks of the adults. In that world, the man from Vestfossen takes all the battles that come. As an ex-president likes to do. Besseberg expresses it loud and clear when he gets angry, instead of choosing the more diplomatic approach he had in the first week in court. And he is not afraid to become a teacher when he feels that prosecutor Djupesland or co-prosecutor Marthe Stømner Smestad are asking questions that he believes are excessively tendentious. In particular, it has affected Smestad, who has spoken in much of the questioning about hunting trips and the relationship with the media company Infront. In the end, the concentrated judges in Buskerud district court will have to decide who is most successful with their approach. But the game, or rather the hunting trip, is a fascinating spectacle, like it or not. And the whole thing is unique, especially in the Norwegian context, of course. But also internationally, there are very few examples of this type of indictment against the leaders of special Olympic federations. That there probably should have been many more is a completely different discussion. And it is precisely the limits of a presidency that all this is really about. Because, viewed in isolation, neither paid hunting trips, close friendships with Russian nightclub dancers, expensive watch gifts nor favorable leasing agreements are punishable. If it does not involve exploiting one’s position in what is legally termed as “improper” to an extent. Anders Besseberg from Vestfossen Who really is this hunter who is on so many and sometimes lucrative hunting trips around Europe? Is it the powerful president of the International Biathlon Union or just Anders Besseberg from Vestfossen? See, that’s really the whole question. To the extent that “Anders Besseberg from Vestfossen” has already become a term in the microcosm of courtroom 2 in the district court at Hokksund. There meet every day five judges led by magistrate Vidar Toftøy-Lohne, two defense attorneys and their assistants, two prosecutors and their investigators, a varying amount of press and audience, including several supporters of the accused, i.e. Anders Besseberg from Bessebergveien in Vestfossen, around 6 kilometers from the courthouse. The most faithful of the listeners is the former biathlete Kjell Hovda, who has caught every word of what has been said so far. Even when the start of the entire trial had to be postponed because the defenders struggled to get through the snow chaos last Wednesday, Hovda was ready on time. Hovda has expressed his friend’s innocence many times. Court signing of Besseberg and his defenders in court. Besseberg does not want to be photographed in court. Photo: Ane Hem / NTB And there is no doubt that it is the sober friend Anders Besseberg from Vestfossen who has accepted watches he did not understand the value of from Russian sports leaders, who have met Russian women without any thought of who brought them together , agreed to car deals the association’s own auditors strongly warned against and went on hunting trips with business partners of the IBU because they were friends and only for that reason. And thus becomes a constantly present reminder in the courtroom of the danger of prejudging a defendant who has obviously been in situations he could and should have avoided. But who is not necessarily guilty of gross corruption for that reason. Culture, unculture or corruption? The whole case is, most of all, a showdown with a culture that has obviously, most of all, been an uncultured one. Where a president has been able to sit for 25 years and let the boundaries between office and friendship flow seemingly uncorrected. It appears with a slightly comical symbolism when prosecutor Marianne Djupesland repeatedly refers to meetings Besseberg has had in “Pyongyang”. So the North Korean capital and not the Olympic city of Pyeongchang in the south. The International Biathlon Union, IBU, has obviously had too much of an autocracy in its governance for too long. Regardless of the outcome for Besseberg personally, this trial is a settlement of exactly that. And what he himself describes as an occasionally too close relationship with Russian leaders. Whatever the outcome. An old man In the series of gossip, Besseberg’s most repeated has been the one in which he refers to “luciferous things” and not “lugrius” and gives associations to the Russians’ only ally in the old Belarus and their dictatorial president Lukashenko. “I thank you for taking that kind of consideration into an old man,” Besseberg concluded the first week of the court proceedings with. The last thing he appears to be is old. On the contrary, he shows a strength and willingness to clean himself up that shows everyone that a soon-to-be 78-year-old is exactly as old as he wants to be. A Vestfossen steadfast tin soldier. And as the accused, it is actually permissible to have selective memory, when you feel it is the right thing to do. He from Ål The second trial week otherwise ended in a new linguistic confusion. What is the surname of the former Norwegian biathlete president, who is the first witness, when the trial moves into a new phase from Tuesday. Bøygård, as the prosecutor has consistently referred to him as, or Bøygaard, as Besseberg suggested as a compromise. The answer turned out to be Bøygard. Some things it might be good to agree on in this matter as well.
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