Ahold is continuing on the road to recovery

It marks the final chapter in a scandal that goes back to February 2003 when Ahold admitted it had overstated its profits by 1bn euros ($1.2bn; �686m).

All defendants, including former chief executive Cees van der Hoeven, say they are innocent of any wrongdoing.

Ahold, which sacked the accused when the scandal first broke, is now well on the way back to full recovery.

Emergency loan

Back in February 2003 its share price collapsed after the revelation that it had fraudulently included profits and revenues of independent overseas subsidiaries on its own balance sheet.

The firm, which at the time was the world's fourth largest retailer, only managed to avoid insolvency by selling assets and securing an emergency credit line from its banks.

"It's clear to me that a lot of things went wrong in the last year I was at Ahold, but I always acted honourably," said Mr Van der Hoeven before entering the Amsterdam court room.

"I'm here to take responsibility for my actions in public, and we'll see what the result is."

Mr Van der Hoeven's co-defendants are former chief financial officer Michiel Meurs, and former board members Roland Fahlin and Jan Andreae.

Lifetime bans

The defendants have already settled fraud charges in the US connected to Ahold's American chains Stop & Shop and Giant.

Under their deal with US financial watchdog Securities and Exchange Commission they admitted no guilt but accepted a lifetime ban from holding office in a publicly traded company.

Ahold, which is continuing to turn around its fortunes under its new management, is not involved in the latest lawsuit.

It has instead already settled with Dutch prosecutors for 8m euros and, more substantially, has agreed to pay 915m euros to settle shareholder lawsuits.