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Norwegian jewellery shop staff threatened with gun during raid

Norwegian police are looking for three people who are suspected of carrying out an armed raid on a jeweller’s shop in Oslo on Monday.

Published: 13 June 2017 13:30 CEST

Norwegian jewellery shop staff threatened with gun during raid

Police outside the jewellery shop on the Grønlandsleiret street in Oslo. Photo: Erik Johansen / NTB scanpix

An employee of the shop was struck in the face during the raid in the Grønland area of Oslo, reports NRK.

The raid, which happened around 11am Monday, was reported to police at 11:48, according to the report.

“Two or three people came into the shop. The individual who was working there was threatened with a pistol and then tied up before the culprits disappeared,” police team leader Torgeir Brenden told NRK at the scene.

Politiet er i Grønlandsleiret i forbindelse med et ran av en gullsmed. 3 mistenkte forlot lokalet for over 40 minutter siden.

— OPS Politiet Oslo (@oslopolitiops) June 12, 2017

The suspects are reported to have been wearing security guard uniforms with Nokas, the name of a Norwegian security company, on them.

Police were initially unable to confirm how long the suspects remained in the shop or the value of the goods stolen.

The shop employee was freed by a shopper who entered the store after the suspects had left.

READ ALSO: Seven Swedes charged for Oslo gold heist

Police were then alerted to the incident.

The suspects are described by police operation leader Rune Ullsand as “two Pakistanis and an African” who spoke Norwegian, according to NRK’s report.

Police are now investigating whether any of the incident was captured by security cameras.

“We ask anyone who was near Grønlandsleiret 6 after 11am [Monday] to come forward,” Ullsand told NRK.

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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