Ex-VW boss charged: Winterkorn will be tried

The indictment has been in the room for a long time, now the trial is actually taking place: Martin Winterkorn has to answer for his role in the Diesel affair in court. The ex-CEO of Volkswagen is charged with several offenses.

Almost five years after the emissions scandal at Volkswagen was exposed, the Braunschweig regional court has approved fraud charges against ex-CEO Martin Winterkorn. This was announced by the competent chamber. Winterkorn has to face the allegations in a public process – when the process begins is still open.

Investigators had indicted the 73-year-old manager in April 2019 because of his role in the diesel scandal. It concerns allegations of serious fraud and violation of the law against unfair competition in connection with manipulation of the emissions values ​​of millions of vehicles. As the court has now announced, the chamber sees a sufficient suspicion in Winterkorn that the manager could be convicted of commercial and gang fraud. That is why the opening of the main proceedings was allowed.

The buyers of certain vehicles from the VW group were deceived about the condition of the cars and especially the so-called shut-off device in the engine control software. As a result, compliance with nitrogen oxide emissions was only guaranteed on the test stand, but not in normal operation. The buyers would have suffered financial loss as a result, it said in a statement from the regional court.

A commercial criminal chamber of three judges examined whether there was sufficient suspicion. During the past few months, the court is said to have had some doubts about the arguments of the Braunschweig public prosecutor's office. In autumn, Judge Christian Schütz asked the prosecutors for further explanations.

Prosecutor had to rework again

According to reports, the court requested, among other things, an expert opinion on the question of whether the software of the control units of the diesel vehicles in question actually contained an illegal program of deception. Observers had actually expected that the trial against Winterkorn and other executives would have opened at the beginning of this year. In January, however, the public prosecutor apparently had to rework: According to information from the "Business Insider", some starting points in the indictment are said to be "not expedient", and in some cases a "sufficient suspicion" should not have been foreseeable.

Accordingly, it was about the allegation of criminal advertising for manipulated diesel cars in the USA – and also the allegation of fraud because of the continued sale of such vehicles. However, the court now admitted the application. In September 2015, Volkswagen admitted tampering with the emission levels of diesel cars after inspections by authorities and research by researchers in the USA. The software of certain engines was set in such a way that significantly more toxic nitrogen oxides (NOx) were emitted in actual operation on the road than in tests.