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CRIME

Norway woman charged with murder of husband ‘withdrew restraining order’

A woman from Oslo who has been arrested and charged with the murder of her husband was granted a restraining order against him but withdrew it.

Published: 12 July 2017 17:07 CEST
Norway woman charged with murder of husband 'withdrew restraining order'
A police technician at the scene on Tuesday night. Photo: Audun Braastad / NTB scanpix

The woman, who is in her 40s, is charged with killing her husband in the Grefsen neighbourhood of Oslo on Tuesday evening, reports newspaper Dagbladet.

Neither the woman or the man, who was in his thirties, have previous convictions, but the woman reported the man for violence twice in 2014, reports the newspaper.

“One report was withdrawn and the other was dismissed due to insufficient evidence. The woman was granted a restraining order, but withdrew it,” Kjetil Moen, acting head of the serious crime department at Oslo Police, said according to the report.

The woman is scheduled to appear before court Thursday with a view to being placed in custody.

She refused to be questioned by police on Tuesday night, reports Dagbladet.

Moen said that police were engaged in dialogue regarding interrogation with the woman and her lawyer.

Mette Yvonne Larsen, the lawyer for the woman, told Dagbladet that it was not yet possible to say how the woman would plead in relation to the charge.

The lawyer told news agency NTB that her client would cooperate with police.

The stabbing in Grefsing in Oslo was reported on Tuesday night to police, who spoke to one of the woman’s two teenage sons.

One of the woman’s sons witnessed part of the stabbing, according to Dagbladet’s report.

The victim was alive when police and ambulance services arrived at the scene, but was declared dead shortly after.

According to a report by newspaper VG, the man was a Gambian national with no known family in Norway who was working in Oslo.

Police declined to go into further details relating to the couple’s marriage, but confirmed to Dagbladet that they were married “some years ago” and certainly before 2014.

“They lived together for three years after the reports [against the man by the woman, ed.], so we must look at the woman’s explanation before we can draw conclusions,” Moen told Dagbladet.

READ MORE: All the news from Oslo

CRIME

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

A Norwegian court on Friday sentenced a former international biathlon boss to prison for three years and one month for accepting bribes, primarily from Russian officials, including luxury watches, prostitutes and hunting trips.

Published: 12 April 2024 16:53 CEST
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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