emissions scandal
The process is one of the most prominent legal proceedings in dealing with the diesel scandal at Volkswagen and the group subsidiary Audi.
(Photo: dpa)
In the Munich fraud trial surrounding the Audi emissions scandal, one of the four accused is off the hook. The case against the engineer Henning L. will be discontinued for a fee of 25,000 euros, said the presiding judge Stefan Weickert on Tuesday at the hearing of the Munich Regional Court.
The money should benefit two environmental and nature conservation organizations. The lowest-ranking of the accused around the former Audi boss Rupert Stadler is therefore considered innocent after two and a half years of trial.
L.’s defense attorney Maximilian Müller, the public prosecutor’s office and the judge had already agreed in principle a week ago to release the 55-year-old from the process. The public prosecutor’s office dropped the charges against him for fraud, indirect false certification and criminal advertising after more than 160 days of trial.
The co-accused engineer Giovanni P., who had previously admitted responsibility for the exhaust gas manipulations, had announced a confession, the judge said at the beginning of the hearing. Like Stadler and the former head of Audi engines and Porsche board member Wolfgang Hatz, P. must expect a conviction for fraud, as judge Weickert said last Tuesday.
Up to ten years in prison. In the case of full confessions, the sentences could be suspended, the judge had emphasized. Stadler and Hatz, who had always rejected the allegations, initially did not comment on their actions on Tuesday.
The process is one of the most prominent legal proceedings in dealing with the diesel scandal at Volkswagen and the group subsidiary Audi. The scandal surrounding millions of manipulated exhaust gas values was exposed in September 2015.
The Munich criminal trial has been running since September 2020. According to the indictment, three accused engineers are said to have manipulated engines in such a way that they complied with the legal emission values on the test bench, but not on the road. Company boss Stadler is said to have failed to stop the sale of the manipulated cars after the scandal became known.
More: Ex-Audi boss Rupert Stadler must expect conviction