BERLIN — The criminal trial of former Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn over the company’s diesel emissions scandal has been postponed due to his poor health.
All hearings have been canceled because Winterkorn cannot appear in the coming months, a court in Brunswick in VW’s home state of Lower Saxony said on October 1.
Winterkorn stepped down as CEO of the VW Group in 2015 after it emerged that millions of VW, Audi and Porsche cars had been manipulated to meet environmental standards.
The first quarter of 2025 is now considered the new timeframe for the start of the 77-year-old’s trial, which is the culmination of a case that has been pending for more than five years.
Criminal charges against Winterkorn include fraud, market manipulation and unlawful false testimony before a parliamentary committee.
He is also suspected of not providing information to the capital market in a timely manner regarding the mass manipulation of diesel engines in 2015.
At the start of the trial in September, Winterkorn denied the allegations. He said through his lawyer that he “did not deceive or harm anyone” and “did not intentionally leave capital markets in the dark so that investors would be harmed.”
The trial suspension comes as VW considers factory closures and mass layoffs in Germany as it seeks billions of euros in savings on its namesake brand amid growing competition in China and a slowdown in the European electric vehicle market.