Back in 2015 Martin Winterkorn, the then head of the Volkswagen Group, had apologized, admitted mistakes and had promised clarification. A day later he resigned. The legal accountability process continues more than a decade after the diesel scandal, known internationally as Dieselgate.

A mammoth fraud trial against four former executives and engineers of the German automaker, but without the participation or presence of former chief executive Martin Winterkorn, concluded today in Brownswig District Court before the commercial criminal law section. The court handed down prison sentences to two executives and suspended sentences to the others.

The defendants feel like scapegoats

Specifically: The former head of diesel engine development was sentenced to four and a half years in prison, the former head of the electronics department to two years and seven months in prison. The most senior defendant, the former head of development at Volkswagen, received a suspended prison sentence of one year and three months. Finally, a former department head was sentenced to one year and ten months probation.

For the prosecution the guilty parties were identified, tried and convicted. The defendants, however, maintain, even today, four years after the trial began, that there were exceptional victims. The prosecution sought prison sentences of two to four years and suspended sentences in only one case. For its part, the defense argued for three acquittals and one reprimand.

Court proceedings are still pending

The court decision is not final, nor have the legal proceedings been completed. After the first trial and proceedings against Martin Wintercorn, four criminal court proceedings against 31 defendants are still pending in Brownswig, according to a district court spokesman.

The scandal surrounding the manipulation of emissions tests for diesel cars came to light in September 2015. In the US, VW had admitted shortly before to the existence of software to falsify emissions values in its vehicles. The so-called Dieselgate has cost the German giant some €33 billion so far, according to the German giant.

Former Volkswagen Group CEO Martin Winterkorn was originally slated to sit in the dock. However, his trial was interrupted for health reasons before the start of the legal proceedings against the executives in September 2021. Meanwhile, the former chief executive spoke in court both as a witness and as a defendant, categorically rejecting any responsibility for the diesel scandal. An accident that resulted in his hospitalization interrupted the trial against him. It remains unknown if and when the legal proceedings against the now 78-year-old defendant will resume.