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Sigrid witness wants cash for police treatment

The 65-year-old man questioned by the Norwegian police over the murder of teen Sigrid Giskegjerde Schjetne wants compensation for having been placed under restrictions for several months. The prosecutor's office announced on Tuesday that it was set to charge a 38-year-old for her abduction and killing.

Published: 9 July 2013 14:16 CEST

Sigrid witness wants cash for police treatment

The funeral of Sigrid Giskegjerde Schjetne at Oppsal Church in Oslo. File photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen/Scanpix

"I can confirm that we have started the process to demand compensation for my client," lawyer Aase Karine Sigmond told the Aftenposten newspaper on Tuesday. "He has from the start been clear with not having anything to do with the incident, but that he had information that could help the investigation."

The suspected abduction and later murder of Sigrid Giskegjerde Schjetne, 16, has kept Norway on edge. She disappeared from the Østensjø neighbourhood in Oslo on August 5th last year. Her body was found less than a month later on September 4th in a wooded area near the 65-year-old's workshop near Oppegård.

The 65-year-old and another suspect in his thirties were arrested on suspicion of being tied to her death that year, with the older suspect released in November 2012.

The prosecutor's office announced on Tuesday that a 38-year-old man would be charged for kidnapping and manslaughter.

"The chief prosecutor has decided that there is no ground for charging the 65-year-old. The charges have therefore been discarded due to lack of evidence," prosecutor's office spokeswoman Nina Prebe said at a press conference.

On Tuesday, the 65-year-old's lawyer underscored that he had lived with police restrictions for two and a half months, and had been questioned for some 100 hours in total.

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Norway's ex-biathlon boss jailed for three years for corruption

Norwegian Anders Besseberg, the 78-year-old head of the International Biathlon Union from 1993 to 2018, was found guilty of nine of 10 counts of aggravated corruption during the period 2009-2018, charges he denied.

“I am of course disappointed and surprised about the verdict and some of the judges’ reasoning. I am appealing on the spot,” Besseberg told the court after the judge read out the 67-page verdict over the course of almost three hours.

“The defendant breached the trust that came with his position at the IBU by accepting the benefits,” judge Vidar Toftoy-Lohne at the Buskerud district court said.

The prosecution hailed the verdict.

“There is a lot of money in circulation in international elite sport. The federations manage substantial financial assets and make decisions that are important for both athletes and the business community,” prosecutor Marianne Djupesland said in a statement.

“We hope this verdict can contribute to raising awareness and that it will have a preventive effect,” she said.

Prosecutors had sought a jail term of three years and seven months and a fine of one million kroner ($95,000).

The court did not hand down a fine, but ordered Besseberg to return gifts amounting to 1.4 million kroner.

Besseberg admitted accepting gifts but dismissed the notion that corruption was involved.

“Even if I received expensive gifts and was invited by many to go hunting, I must stress that I never let myself be corrupted,” he told the court during his trial, media reported.

Russian shadow

As head of the IBU when the Russian doping scandal exploded in the 2010s, Besseberg was accused of initially hiding cases of Russian doping in his sport in exchange for favours.

Prosecutors dropped that line of attack, but in Norway, receiving improper favours, even if no services are provided in exchange, is enough to constitute corruption.

Russia’s shadow nonetheless hung heavily over the case.

According to an inquiry launched by Sweden’s Olle Dahlin, who succeeded Besseberg as head of the IBU, Besseberg pushed to hold the 2021 biathlon world championships in Tyumen, Siberia, despite the Russian doping scandals.

The contest was eventually awarded to Pokljuka in Slovenia.

Prosecutors argued that Besseberg went on fully paid hunting trips in Austria and in the Czech Republic, and for seven years drove a leased BMW X5, all paid for by Infront, a marketing company that held television rights to the sport.

They argued he was given three watches worth a total of more than 30,000 euros ($33,000), invited on trips to hunt deer and wild boar, and offered services from sex workers, all paid for by Russian officials.

Asked about an Omega watch worth more than 17,000 euros he received in 2011 for his 65th birthday, he said: “I did not think it was undeserved.”

The court said two of the three watches he received constituted corruption.

Besseberg also denied any contact with sex workers, acknowledging only what he said was a consensual affair with a 42-year-old Russian.

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