Former VW CEO Martin Winterkorn rejects the judge as biased in his criminal proceedings on the diesel affair. Winterkorn’s trust in the impartiality of the presiding judge has been destroyed by his behavior, according to a letter from the defense to the Braunschweig regional court. The 77-year-old’s lawyers are bothered by the fact that the trial has been rescheduled for February 2025, before one A court-ordered assessment of Winterkorn’s health took place. Last Wednesday in the 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 to be unreasonable. In fact, Winterkorn only arrived on the afternoon of December 18th, also last Wednesday , has been investigated, complains the defense. 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. A reaction from the court to the application for bias was initially not available on Monday.More on the subjectAccording to the defense, the doctor came to the conclusion in his report the following day that Winterkorn was in principle 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 proves that he had formed a firm opinion about Winterkorn’s state of health before he had the results of the medical expert. The restart of the trial is shaky 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 trial, the proceedings were 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.
Go to Source