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16-year-old pleads guilty in Norway double murder case

A 16-year-old has pleaded guilty of the murders of Tone Ilebekk and Jakob Hassan in December 2016.

Published: 19 June 2017 12:58 CEST

16-year-old pleads guilty in Norway double murder case

Kritstiansand District Court during proceedings. Photo: Tor Erik Schrøder / NTB scanpix

Jakob Abdullahi Hassan (14) and Tone Ilebekk (48) were both stabbed to death on the premises of the Wilds Minne primary school 5th December 2016. Hassan was a student at nearby Fiskå school.

Hassan was stabbed 28 times and 48-year-old Tone Ilebekk 32 times in the 5th December 2016 murders.

Court proceedings have established that Ilebekk attempted to help Hassan, who was lying on a bench after being attacked, and thereafter became a victim herself.

At the time of his arrest, police described the then-15-year-old as part of the murdered 14-year-old's social circle, but said no connection was found between 15-year-old and Ilebekk, a mother of two and a worker at a nearby daycare centre.

READ ALSO: Norwegian teen confesses to schoolyard double murder

The accused appeared calm and smile as he entered the courtroom at Kristiansand District Court Monday, reports broadcaster NRK. He looked away and turned to his legal counsel to ask questions as relatives of the victims entered the courtroom, according to the report.

He also told the court that he had “hated Hassan for a long time” and linked the murder to a debt of 600 kroner ($71) that he claimed the 14-year-old owed him, NRK reported from the courtroom Monday.

One of the key questions for the court regarding sentencing will be whether the murder of Hassan was planned.

The maximum sentence the 16-year-old can receive is 15 years, since he is under the age of 18.

Police officers involved in the investigation of the crime are scheduled to give testimony during the first day of the trial.

Special investigating officer Cato Meijer and commanding officer Arivd Bjelkåsen of police security agency Kripos will be among the witnesses to be questioned in court.

The trial will be carried out behind closed doors, with only press and family of the victims present, due to the age of the accused, who recently passed his 16th birthday.

Proceedings are expected to take three days.

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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