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Audi boss Stadler 2015: a lot of words, little information
Photo:
Wolf Heider Sawal / laif
The place looks intimidating.
An elongated concrete bunker, black metal struts in front of the few windows, a staircase leads from the entrance deep into the basement.
Down there is the high-security courtroom of the Stadelheim correctional facility, a room with explosion-proof ceilings and a barred roof hatch. A judge once called the courtroom the "Fort Knox of the Bavarian State Courts".
Underground corridors connect it directly to the historic prison, which once housed Adolf Hitler and later the NSU terrorist Beate Zschäpe.
Three years ago, two former Audi managers were in custody there: Wolfgang Hatz, formerly head of engine development, and Giovanni Pamio, diesel specialist.
The two of them return to Stadelheim next Wednesday, together with the first car boss to be brought to the dock in the wake of the diesel affair: the former Audi boss Rupert Stadler.
They all have to answer for their role in the diesel affair before the 5th criminal chamber of the Munich II district court.
Five years after Dieselgate became known, this is the first time that a German court is to be held responsible for the emissions scandal, which reduced the value of more than eleven million vehicles worldwide and brought diesel technology into disrepute - and with it the German flagship industry.
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