Two major investigators into the embezzlement charges against the Baugur Five were ruled “incompetent” for further participation in the case at Reykjavík District Court yesterday.
National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police Haraldur Johannessen and Jón H.B. Snorrason, head of the Unit for the Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crimes, will not supervise the investigation any further. Fréttabladid reports.
The accused, Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson, Jóhannes Jónsson, Tryggvi Jónsson, Stefán Hilmarsson and Kristín Jóhannesdóttir, had requested Johannessen be ruled incompetent for participating in the case after making statements about Baugur to the media following the Supreme Court’s October 2005 dismissal of 32 embezzlement charges against the company.
On 11 October 2005 Johannessen said in the evening news of Channel 2 that he believed that his own authority of the National Commission of the Icelandic Police had become too involved with the Baugur case to be able to investigate it independently.
Lawyer of Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson, Gestur Jónsson, told Fréttabladid that yesterday’s ruling indicated that the entire charges of embezzlement pressed against Baugur since 2004 would be dropped.
Jón H.B. Snorrason said he and Johannessen were considering appealing to the Supreme Court.
To read more about the Baugur case, click here.
