A court in Norway has found the former IBU president Anders Besseberg guilty in 9 out of 11 charges of corruption. He was sentenced to three years and one month in prison. The 78-year-old Norwegian is appealing the sentence.
Lars Werge, a former investigative sports journalist and ex-president of the Danish Union of Journalists, is elected as the new president of the Danish Athletic Federation – following several years of poor governance inside the board of the federation.
The prosecutor in the criminal trial against the former IBU president Anders Besseberg calls for an unconditional sentence of 3 years and 7 months in prison. The verdict will be handed down on 12 April. Besseberg describes himself as the victim of a hounding: like a "wild boar" that must be shot.
The five Nordic countries are often portrayed as democratic role models. But it is not only the ongoing criminal case against former IBU president Anders Besseberg that justifies scrutinising the double standards of other sports leaders and sports federations from Scandinavia.
Anders Besseberg, former president of the International Biathlon Union, risks ten years in prison for corruption in a true Nordic Noir crime case that has exposed one of the largest sports scandals in the Nordic democracies in 25 years. Further investigations in other countries are still ongoing.
