Dusseldorf, Munich A turning point may be in the offing in the process of manipulated diesel engines at Audi before the Munich II Regional Court. The presiding judge Stefan Weickert interrupted the main hearing on Wednesday after just over an hour. A little later it went on behind closed doors, closed to the public.
The reason: Judges, prosecutors and the defense attorneys of the former Audi boss Rupert Stadler as well as the accused former Audi engine developer Wolfgang Hatz and Giovanni Pamio came together for a so-called legal talk. In criminal proceedings, this is the attempt to bring about an agreement between the accused, the public prosecutor’s office and the court.
According to judicial circles, the lawyers and court do not want to comment on the content and possible outcome of the almost two-hour conversation until the next public hearing on April 25th. However, Pamio has recently made a confession.
There is now much to suggest that Hatz, the ex-head of aggregate development at Audi, is also taking such a step. And Stadler could end up with a confession. In this case, the process, which has been running for two and a half years, could be coming to an end soon.
Only shortly before Easter did the court discontinue the proceedings against the engineer Henning L. against payment of 25,000 euros. L. had supported the judiciary as a key witness at an early stage in clarifying the scandal and made a confession – so only the trio around Stadler remained in the dock.
guilty verdict likely
The trial against Stadler and Co. is one of the most prominent legal proceedings in dealing with the diesel scandal at Volkswagen and its subsidiary Audi. The scandal involving millions of manipulated emissions values was exposed in September 2015.
According to the indictment, Hatz, Pamio and L. manipulated engines in such a way that they complied with the legal emission values on the test bench, but not on the road. Stadler, in turn, is said to have failed to stop the sale of the affected cars after the scandal became known. Stadler and Hatz have always denied the allegations.
There is an obvious reason why the legal talks have now taken place: at the end of March, the criminal chamber led by the presiding judge Stefan Weickert drew up an interim balance and made it clear that they considered the men in the dock to be guilty. Only with a confession, the judges hinted, could the ex-Audi manager get away with a suspended sentence.
The former head of aggregate development at Audi could bring about a turnaround in the process.
(Photo: dpa)
The court is convinced that both Hatz and Stadler are guilty. Hatz was therefore directly involved in the manipulation of the engines. He also knew that software would be used to detect whether a vehicle was on the test bench or on the road. Exhaust gas cleaning was active in the test laboratory, but was reduced on the road.
In this way, the vehicles saved the urea Adblue, which has to be injected to neutralize the nitrogen oxides. However, the tanks in the cars were much too small for cost reasons.
The allegations against Stadler are different: he was not directly involved in the technical development of the diesel engines. Rather, as Audi boss, he allowed dirty cars to continue to be sold, even though he already knew about the diesel manipulations, according to the accusation.
Stadler and Hatz face imprisonment
Both Hatz and Stadler were already in custody. Stadler was held in the Augsburg-Gablingen prison for around four months, and Hatz was even held in Munich-Stadelheim for nine months. This pre-trial detention would count towards a prison sentence. Nevertheless, both Audi managers would have to reckon with going to prison again if they were convicted.
At least under civil law, Stadler and Hatz do not face any further trouble. This is not a matter of course, because the usual manager liability insurances do not step in in the event of intentional crimes.
But the VW Group has already reached an agreement with its former management team and the insurance consortium: in mid-2021, a payment of 288 million euros was agreed. Insurers contributed the lion’s share. Former VW boss Martin Winterkorn paid a good eleven million into the pot, Stadler 4.1 million euros and Hatz 1.5 million euros.
However, the three remaining defendants are likely to face high payments elsewhere. The legal costs would have to be borne by them in the event of a conviction. Those involved in the process say that in the end these could probably be significantly more than two million euros.
And the approaching end of the first criminal proceedings does not mean that the criminal investigation into the diesel scandal at Audi is complete. The Munich II public prosecutor’s office had already submitted another indictment in the summer of 2020: It is directed against the former development directors Ulrich Hackenberg and Stefan Knirsch, the former purchasing director Bernd Martens and the now retired developer Richard Bauder. In the past, the accused have always denied the allegations.
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