Status: 16.09.2021 7:27 p.m.
The criminal investigation of the VW emissions scandal has begun in Braunschweig. Four executives are in the dock in the fraud trial. Ex-VW boss Winterkorn is not there.
There is a strange tension in the air when the court enters the hearing room shortly after half past nine. It doesn’t take long before the presiding judge Christian Schütz shouts across the room. It is too slow for him when the cameramen leave the room and have to switch off their cameras in front of the door. A few minutes later, one of the defense lawyers asks that the court also briefly introduce themselves – including the two lay judges.
Shortly before that, the presence of all other participants in the hall was established. “You are familiar with the names,” says Schütz, whereupon the defense attorney replied that he could not assign them. “My name is Schütz, I think that’s enough at this point,” is the clear answer from the bench, which does not allow any discussion. One notices immediately: there is a lot at stake here. Six years after the VW emissions scandal broke up, criminal responsibility is now to be clarified by the first VW executives. The public expectation is great.
Winter grain omnipresent
Later the tone becomes a little quieter. The trial is not held in the regional court, but in the large event hall of the Braunschweig city hall. Six groups of tables are set up in front of the bench. Behind one sits the public prosecutor, behind four others the defendants with their respective defense lawyers. A group of tables remains empty. Actually, the most prominent defendant should have been sitting here: Ex-VW boss Martin Winterkorn. But the case against him was severed shortly before it began. He is not able to negotiate after a hip operation. “Facing one’s responsibility looks different,” said the lawyer Andreas Mroß later in his opening statement. Winterkorn have shirked. And he considers it wrong that the court only wants to hear his case once a judgment has been reached. Winterkorn would then be at least 76. “Then he would definitely have other ailments”.
The public prosecutor’s office had also lodged a complaint against the separation of the Winterkorn case – at the higher regional court. A decision is not expected there until the end of September. If successful, the process would have to start over and the first few days of negotiations would have to be repeated at some point.
“Don’t get caught”
Winterkorn also plays a big role in the indictment. During the reading, the public prosecutor explains very precisely that he knew about the shutdown software from May 2014, but allowed the fraud to continue. In the one-and-a-half-hour reading of the indictment, the prosecutor also meticulously traces what happened at VW between 2006 and 2015 and how the four defendants participated. Everyone would have known that they should never have brought the cars onto the market like this. None of them prevented it.
Already at a meeting in 2007, a manager, against whom legal proceedings are still pending, said at a meeting: “Don’t be caught”. So it was always clear that something illegal was happening here. The defendants wanted VW to generate the highest possible profits. Their bonus payments depended on it.
Different defense strategies
“My client does not belong in this trial, not next to these defendants,” said lawyer Mroß about his client in the afternoon. This is Thorsten D., former head of the work processes and exhaust aftertreatment department at VW. He tried to prevent the software as early as 2006, and he kept trying to stop what was happening. But in his position he could not do more than turn to his superiors and stand up for them. In addition, Thorsten D. presented himself to the investigative authorities at an early stage and contributed greatly to the investigation. He would also like to testify in these proceedings and answer all of the court’s questions.
Request to stop the proceedings
A second defense attorney has her say on the first day of the hearing. But the lawyer Annette Voges does not talk about her client, the former head of aggregate development and later development director Heinz-Jakob N. Instead, she applies to suspend the proceedings. So stop again before it really started. In the run-up to the hearing, the court had given the public prosecutor’s office further investigations because it was not satisfied with the charges. In addition, it had commissioned its own investigations. The court did not wait for the results. This is a one-time process because the investigation is still ongoing. However, this is incompatible with a constitutional process, because the defendants do not even know what they have to respond to, how they should defend themselves.
On the second day of the hearing, all parties involved can comment on the application before the court then decides on it. In addition, the defense attorneys for the other two defendants, Jens H., for a long time head of engine development, and Hanno J., head of the drive electronics department, should then have their opening statements. If the request for suspension is unsuccessful, then the difficult search for truth begins. 133 days of negotiations have already been scheduled. The defendants who want to comment will then have their say in the next few weeks.