– Prosecutors believe it has been demonstrated beyond any reasonable doubt that it was committed gross corruption, said chief public prosecutor Baard Thorsen when Økokrim launched its procedure in Yara -saken Monday morning.
After two and a half months in court yesterday corruption case against the four former top executives at Yara into its final phase in the Oslo District Court.
– Was cleared
Økokrim claimed in the procedure Monday that Yara with open eyes into an agreement to pay millionbestikkelser son to Libyan former oil minister and that it was unlikely that the company’s legal director, Kendrick Wallace, signed the agreement without having cleared this with his superiors.
None of the four acknowledge guilt. You can see how Økokrim believes the four have contributed to corruption and what they explain by clicking on the images in the graphic below. (Article continues below the graphic)
Kendrick Wallace has in interviews explained that co-defendants Tor Holba Enger known to the agreement he signed in Libya on behalf of the company, but in court changed explanation and said that he no longer remember clearly enough to naming people. He has argued all along that he did not do this on their own initiative.
First District Attorney Bard Thorsen said the court must assume that Wallace explained the right in interrogations. He points out that in the case of special circumstances: An agreement signed with the son of negotiation counterpart in Libya, and a payment of $ 1.5 million that should be hidden. Furthermore, it was simple things that should be remembered: Why the agreement was signed, and who Yara involved.
– Extraordinary
– Prosecutors presupposes that it was not commonplace to participate in such events. There must have been something that fastened itself in the memory due to the action of extraordinary character, said Thorsen.
– Why he claims then here in court that he no longer remembers, he asked further. – There is no definitive answer to that, but a natural consequence may be that he does not want to take the personal burden of speaking on former colleagues here in court. It is perhaps easier to sit shoulder to shoulder with the other defendants and not help prosecutors with the case against former colleagues over many years, he said.
guile and luck
Økokrim also believes that there is no doubt that the payment of $ 1.5 million is bribery Ghanem junior received because of his father’s position as oil minister and chairman of the company Yara negotiated with. Thorsen showed that amount was disbursed on the basis of an oral agreement, that it was very unclear what kind of services he would deliver, and that payment was kept well hidden.
– It was a mixture of ingenuity from our by researchers side and a good portion of luck that we found the payment, said chief public prosecutor Marianne Djupesland in Prosecutor in his introduction to the procedure.
The defenders of the accused starts its procedures later this week.
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