– Where are we now in the prosecution? asked Besseberg’s lawyer Christan B. Hjort in an irritated voice in the middle of the hearing where both corruption and doping were mixed up, according to several Norwegian media.
Prosecutor Marianne Djupesland explained that luxury watches were traded, including an Omega watch worth around SEK 200,000 that Besseberg is said to have received.
– That’s not what you’re asking for. You are asking for something completely different, said Hjort.
However, Djupeland did not agree.
– No, I don’t at all, said Djupesland.
Whistleblower included in sound recording
Rodchenkov was Russia’s anti-doping chief and exposed wrongdoing during the 2014 Sochi Olympics and fled to the US and lives with a new identity in a secret location. He participated via a sound recording.
Rodchenkov claimed, among other things, that the Russian biathlete director Sergei Kushchenko, who is central to the indictment against Besseberg, gave him money to buy doping preparations in the years before the Olympics in Sochi.
– Of course there were bribes, said Rodchenkov, who could not remember whether the Russians in secret paid out 200,000 or 300,000 dollars to Besseberg and could not provide any concrete evidence that a transfer actually took place.
“I have not received a penny”
Besseberg’s lawyers dismissed Rodchenkov’s testimony as irrelevant and unrelated to the case.
– I have not received a krone, a ruble or a dollar from any Russian, said an upset Besseberg, who ended today’s hearing in Buskerud’s district court.
The trial began on January 9 and is to end on February 16. 77-year-old Besseberg, who was president of the International Biathlon Union between 1992 and 2018, risks up to ten years in prison.