JON Asgeir Johannesson was free to reclaim his reputation yesterday after an Icelandic court cleared the Baugur chief executive of all outstanding charges against him.

Judge Petur Gudgeirsson, of the Reykjavik district court, said in his judgment that the “prosecutor’s key witness seems to bear a personal grudge towards Jon Asgeir Johannesson and possibly other members of his family”.

The judge acquitted Mr Johannesson of eight charges, including allegations of minor book-keeping and import-duty transgressions. The key witness, Jon Gerald Sullenberger, is a former business partner of Mr Johannesson.

The acquittal brings to a close a nine-month saga that began last June, when Mr Johannesson was charged, along with five associates, including his sister and father, with 40 counts of embezzlement and fraud. Last year, Iceland’s Supreme Court threw out 32 of those charges, leaving the case in tatters.

Mr Johannesson has always denied the charges, but the scandal still forced Baugur, which owns the British retailers Karen Millen, Hamleys and Oasis, to withdraw from the consortium that bought Somerfield last year.

Mr Johannesson was not available for comment yesterday. The prosecution has eight weeks to lodge an appeal, but the Baugur camp said that it was difficult to see what credibility the case retained.

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