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Braunschweig (dpa) - The diesel fraud process against the former VW CEO Martin Winterkorn begins a good two months later than initially planned.
This was announced by the Braunschweig Regional Court.
According to this, the main negotiation in the central "Dieselgate" proceedings will start on April 20th instead of February 25th.
The current corona situation was named as a justification.
Winterkorn will soon be on trial with four other Volkswagen executives.
The charge is based on commercial and gang fraud in connection with the exhaust gas manipulation on millions of cars that triggered the diesel crisis in 2015.
The 6th criminal division of the regional court canceled the previously targeted dates and set a new plan for the period from April 20th.
The entire process with over 130 days of negotiation should then continue to take up to two years.
Because of the presumed great interest, it was moved to the Braunschweig town hall.
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There had already been indications at the turn of the year that the court could postpone the main hearing - possibly also because of Winterkorn's state of health.
The chamber had consulted an expert on his negotiating ability.
She made no reference to this in the decision to postpone, but named the pandemic situation.
Stricter protective measures would have "not directly affected" the start of the process, it said.
For the chamber, the political decisions in the fight against Corona “nevertheless express an assessment that makes the postponement to a point in spring appear appropriate”.
In the end it was also not clear whether Winterkorn (73) would even be able to appear regularly in the courtroom.
According to information from his environment, he is said to be in poor health.
According to reports, the ex-manager is facing an important operation that could further disrupt the main negotiation process.
The district court had stated: "The ability of a defendant to stand trial presupposes his ability to sensibly perceive his interests inside or outside the hearing, to conduct the defense in an intelligible and understandable manner and to issue and receive declarations of proceedings."
Should this ability be restricted, breaks or interruptions could also be an option to go through the process, for example.
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In September 2015, Volkswagen admitted tampering with emissions values after inspections by authorities in the USA.
The software of certain engines was set in such a way that significantly more toxic nitrogen oxides were emitted on the road than in tests.
The revelations kicked off the emissions scandal, which has cost the company well over 30 billion euros in legal expenses to date.
In addition, a deep crisis of confidence gripped the entire automotive industry.
Winterkorn had quickly resigned.
However, he was "not aware of any wrongdoing," he said at the time.
Before an investigative committee of the Bundestag he also stressed that he had no knowledge of illegal deception.
The Braunschweig public prosecutor's office nevertheless charged him after a lengthy investigation.
In the meantime, rumors of a suspension had made the rounds because the prosecutors had to rework on some points.
The ex-VW boss had to be prepared for a process because of alleged market manipulation.
However, this was recently canceled.
The court said that the possible penalty that Winterkorn could face in fraud proceedings is likely to be significantly higher than the charge of informing the financial world too late about the consequences of the emissions crisis.
Similar proceedings against the current VW group boss Herbert Diess and against the former CFO and current VW supervisory board chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch were discontinued in 2020 against the payment of 9 million euros.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210125-99-164923 / 4