There will be almost as many witnesses to be questioned, 24 of them, in Borgarting Court of Appeal as there were in the district court, reports news agency NTB.
Among them is the current chairman of IBU, Swede Olle Dahlin. And the Russian doping whistleblower Grigorij Rodtjenkov. He will be questioned via link from his secret address in the USA.
Rodtjenkov was behind the exposure of the Russian doping scandal in connection with the Olympic Games in Sochi 2014. Besseberg was initially accused of having been bribed to conceal Russian doping in biathlon, but the allegations never made it among the charges in the district court. Instead, the case continues to be investigated in Austria.
The accusations against Besseberg in the district court concerned that the now 79-year-old Norwegian had received gifts from Russia in the form of watches, prostitutes, and hunting trips, as well as a leased car – during his last nine years in office.
The crimes were classified as gross corruption and Besseberg was sentenced to three years and one month in prison. He was deprived of the bribes he had received, but avoided paying a fine of one million Norwegian kronor that the prosecutor demanded.
The former biathlon boss has always claimed to be innocent of having served Russia's interests and he appealed the verdict.
Even though I received expensive gifts and was invited on hunting trips by many, I must emphasize that I was never corrupted, he said during the trial in the district court.
The trial in the Court of Appeal, Norway's equivalent to the Court of Appeal, is expected to continue until May 20.
