Ex-VW Winterkorn's diesel scam trial suspended due to ailing health

BERLIN -- The criminal trial of former Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn over the automaker's diesel emissions scandal has been suspended due to his poor health.

All hearings have been cancelled because Winterkorn will not be fit to attend in the coming months, a court in Brunswick in VW's home state of Lower Saxony said on Oct. 1.

Winterkorn resigned as VW Group CEO in 2015 after it emerged that millions of VW, Audi and Porsche cars had been manipulated to pass environmental standards.

The first quarter of 2025 is now being considered as a new timeframe for the start of the 77-year-old's trial, the culmination of a case more than five years in the making.

The criminal charges against Winterkorn include fraud, market manipulation and unlawful false testimony before a parliamentary committee.

He is also alleged to have failed to inform the capital market in good time about the mass manipulation of diesel engines in 2015.

At the start of the trial in September, Winterkorn rejected the allegations. He said via his lawyer that he "did not defraud or harm anyone" and "did not deliberately leave the capital market in the dark so that investors would be harmed."

The suspension of the trial comes as VW considers factory closures and mass layoffs in Germany as it looks for billions of euros in savings at its namesake brand amid increasing Chinese competition and a slowdown in Europe's EV market.