Uproar in the courtroom
Wirecard trial: Lawyer accuses judge of concealment
February 7, 2024, 2:10 p.m
Listen to article
This audio version was artificially generated. More info | Send feedback
The largest German fraud case since 1945 has been being heard in Munich since December 2022 – and there is still no verdict. The climate in the Wirecard trial is tense, and a lawyer accuses the judge of concealment.
A scandal broke out in the Munich Wirecard trial on the 100th day of the trial: a defense attorney for former CEO Markus Braun accused the judges of concealment. Attorney Nico Werning initially wanted to submit a motion for bias against the presiding judge Markus Födisch and his two assessors on behalf of Braun and read it out in the hall. The chairman rejected this and instructed the lawyer to submit the application for bias in writing. “The way in which you are concealing the proceedings here defies description,” Werning then accused the chairman. “They just don’t want the public to know what’s happening here.”
The trial has been running since December 2022, and the prosecution accuses Braun and his two co-defendants of fraud worth billions. They are said to have fabricated sales together with other accomplices over the years. On Monday, the court suspended the arrest warrant against key witness Oliver Bellenhaus, who admitted most of the allegations and heavily incriminated his former CEO.
Braun is the only one of the three defendants who is still in custody. According to the former CEO, however, he was not the perpetrator, but rather the victim of the criminals in the company. Braun’s lawyers accuse Bellenhaus of lying. Immediately after Bellenhaus’s release, a defense attorney for Braun accused the Munich judiciary of a “dirty deal behind closed doors” in an outraged statement.
The court rejected this in a separate statement: “Detention examination dates are not public,” explained a spokesman. “No agreement whatsoever about the criminal proceedings was made at the detention hearing on February 5, 2024. Only the requirements of the arrest warrant and the conditions for suspension of execution were discussed.”