The Braunschweig district court wants to shorten the main hearing, which is initially scheduled to run until the end of October; according to the latest planning status, it no longer considered necessary.

Now the public prosecutor's office and defense are supposed to give their final lectures earlier than expected.

The chamber around the presiding judge Bohle Behrendt could then announce a judgment on Tuesday morning.

The proceedings concern the allegedly excessive payment of leading works councils (Ref .: 16 KLs 85/19). The prosecutors accuse the executives - including the ex-Group HR directors Horst Neumann and Karlheinz Blessing - of having released inappropriately lavish remuneration between 2011 and 2016 to high members of the very influential employee representation at VW. The accusation is infidelity, sometimes even in a particularly serious case. The largest European car manufacturer is said to have suffered damage of more than 5 million euros due to reduced profits.

Another topic in the process was the salaries and bonuses of the former VW works council boss, Bernd Osterloh.

He appeared as a witness and a separate aid proceeding was severed in his case.

According to the prosecutors, the personnel managers had chosen the criteria for determining the salaries of the senior works councils “deliberately in such a way that an increased salary was apparently justified, although this was not correct”.

The defendants' defense lawyers denied this.