Enlarge image
Ex-Wirecard boss Markus Braun: Possible statement in the coming year
Photo: FABRIZIO BENSCH / AFP
The former Wirecard boss Markus Braun now wants to testify in court.
Braun's defense attorney Alfred Dierlamm said that if the Munich I Regional Court does not follow the defense's pending motion to stay the proceedings, Braun will probably comment in the second half of January.
Originally, Braun should have testified last week, but did not do so due to new evidence submitted by the public prosecutor.
On the third day of the hearing, Braun's lawyer Alfred Dierlamm accused the public prosecutor's office of conducting parallel investigations and making documents available "as they see fit".
Those involved in the proceedings would continue to be "flooded" with documents and data, said Dierlamm.
The investigations, which are being conducted in parallel, are a "bottomless pit" and the procedural situation is incompatible with the principles of the rule of law.
Therefore the procedure must be suspended.
11,000 PDF pages and thousands of emails
Dierlamm justified this by saying that the prosecution was still supplying evidence on a large scale after the main proceedings had been opened, which made a defense impossible.
After the second day of negotiations, the defense received 11,000 PDF pages and over 8,000 e-mails, which now have to be viewed.
According to the presiding judge Markus Födisch, the application for suspension will probably not be decided until next year.
The public prosecutor accuses Braun and two other defendants of accounting fraud, market manipulation, breach of trust and fraud.
A criminal gang led by Braun has for years falsified the balance sheets of the former Dax group and painted the mirage of a successful company.
The 53-year-old Braun, on the other hand, sees himself as a victim of managers around the fugitive former board member Marsalek, who would have set aside billions.
rai/AFP
