Former VW CEO Martin Winterkorn (77) rejects the judge as biased in his criminal proceedings on the diesel affair. Winterkorn’s trust in the presiding judge’s impartiality was destroyed by his behavior, according to a letter from the defense to the Braunschweig regional court, which is available to the German Press Agency.
The 77-year-old’s lawyers are bothered by the fact that the trial was rescheduled for February 2025 before a court-ordered assessment of Winterkorn’s health took place. Last Wednesday afternoon, the regional court announced in a press release that a restart of the proceedings with 89 dates was planned for February 4th.
Defense: Expert considers travel to court unreasonable
In fact, Winterkorn was only examined on the afternoon of December 18th, also last Wednesday, the defense complains. According to the lawyers, it is therefore impossible that the judge could have been aware of the doctor’s conclusion when he set the trial dates and sent out the press release. There was initially no response from the court to the application for bias on Monday.
According to the defense, the doctor came to the conclusion in his report the following day that Winterkorn was basically fit to travel. According to an expert assessment, it is currently unreasonable for him to travel to Braunschweig. In addition, entire days of negotiations are probably not possible. The judge’s behavior shows that he had formed a firm opinion about Winterkorn’s state of health before he was presented with the medical expert’s results.
Process restart wobbles again
With the application for bias, there is once again a big question mark before the trial. The 77-year-old is accused of commercial fraud, market manipulation and unsworn false statements in the proceedings before the Commercial Criminal Chamber. However, he had rejected all of the prosecution’s allegations. The presumption of innocence applies.
Last September – almost exactly nine years after the emissions manipulation at the Wolfsburg car manufacturer was exposed – the first trial against Winterkorn began. After a few days of negotiations the proceedings had been postponed due to an injury to the defendant. According to court statements at the time, Winterkorn was so seriously injured that he had to be taken to hospital.