The trial of former CEO of Volkswagen Martin Winterkornprosecuted in Germany for the “Dieselgate” case, was suspended until the first quarter of 2025 since the accused cannot attend for health reasons, the court announced this Tuesday.
“The court is now studying setting a new trial date for the first quarter of 2025,” the court in Brunswick, in the north of the country, reported in a statement.
Winterkorn, 77, recently suffered a multiple fracture of the femuraccording to what a person close to the case told AFP.
The one who was head of the Volkswagen empire 2007 to 2015 He has been on criminal trial since September 3, almost nine years after the revelation of the global scandal of souped-up diesel engines.
This is a new setback for this process, which was initially supposed to be held in 2021, at the same time as the appearance of four other former directors of the group. It was then postponed due to the fragile health of Winterkornafter several surgical interventions.
The judges of Brunswick have “a medical report on the question of the capacity of Mr. Winterkorn to travel and participate in debatesaccording to which he is not in a position to participate in court hearings for health reasons, at least in the coming months,” the court said.
Winterkorn, who denies all accusationscould be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
Volkswagen acknowledged in 2015 that it had manipulated some 11 million diesel vehicles around the world, so that they would show levels of polluting emissions lower than the real ones.
The prosecution claims that Winterkorn was aware “no later than May 2014” of the fraud. Furthermore, he would have knowingly authorized the dissemination of ads promoting cars as “green” to generate significant profits.
