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Ex-Audi boss Stadler at the trial in Munich
Photo: MATTHIAS SCHRADER / AFP
Mutual recriminations shaped the second day of the Audi diesel trial before the Munich Regional Court.
The accused engine developer Giovanni P. admitted to his involvement in the exhaust gas trickery through his defense counsel, but saw himself in the role of a subordinate recipient of orders: "Everything was determined from above," said his lawyer Walter Lechner, all instructions for the development of the controversial engines as well as the associated manipulation of the exhaust gas values came from the top of the group.
To assume that the topic had not reached the board of directors would be "alien to life".
The employees of P. had "no decision-making authority".
His client does not belong in the dock, but Audi as a company.
The defenders of the former Audi engine boss Wolfgang Hatz, in turn, accused Giovanni P. of lying.
"Herr Hatz did not approve of such a thing," and he would have "never tolerated it," said his lawyer Gerson Trüg.
The indictment accuses former Audi boss Rupert Stadler and engineers Hatz, Giovanni P. and Henning L. of fraud.
The three engineers are said to have worked together in 2008 to ensure that the large Audi diesel engines comply with the exhaust emission limits with the help of illegal software on the test bench, but exceed them on the road.
According to the indictment, this should make it possible to sell the cars from 2009 without the subsequent installation of larger Adblue tanks for exhaust gas cleaning.
Stadler is said to have learned of tampering only in 2015, but did not stop sales in Europe.
Manipulations "creeping development"
Among other things, because the allegations against Stadler are less serious than against the other defendants, Stadler's lawyers demanded that the main hearing against their mandate be suspended and the proceedings be separated from those against the three other accused.
Defense attorney Thilo Pfordte made massive criticism of the public prosecutor's office.
Their previous procedure was "grossly unfair," he said.
The whole indictment is "in a bad position".
Most of the charges relate to the other three defendants, Pfordte said.
The allegations against Stadler are only attached on the last pages.
In addition, the defender fears that the current constellation will make it very difficult for Stadler to defend himself.
Stadler has so far always denied the prosecution's allegations and sees himself being duped by the technicians.
The former head of exhaust aftertreatment at Audi, Henning L., confessed his involvement in the exhaust gas trickery, but emphasized his current role as a scout.
He and his employees had used significant parts of the cheat software, said his defender Maximilian Müller.
"From his point of view, there was no decision at Audi to develop cheat software."
Rather, that was the result of a "creeping development": The Diesel development team recognized that it could not fulfill supposedly immovable requirements from other teams and superiors.
Instead of openly declaring that they had failed at their task, the developers finally installed defeat devices.
This is also due to the authoritarian corporate culture at Audi and in the VW Group at the time: Nobody who was directly involved in manipulation was brave enough to "pull the rip cord".
Superiors were certainly clear that it would not work without "shitting".
But his client was "not simply assigning blame upwards," emphasized Müller.
In contrast to his co-defendants, Henning L. was never in custody.
Stadler asked L. as a member of a task force in May 2016 "for unreserved clarification".
L. then decided on his own initiative to disclose his knowledge to the authorities in the USA and Germany.
"He's been delivering ever since," said the defender.
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bah / AFP / Reuters / dpa