Defence lawyers representing former Audi chief Rupert Stadler and his two co-defendants began their closing arguments on Tuesday in the long-running diesel emissions trial.
The trial is one of many in Germany linked to the “dieselgate” scandal that rocked the top echelons of the Volkswagen Group, which includes Audi.
Cars with diesel engines had been manipulated by an automatic shut-off system in such a way that they complied with exhaust emission limits on the test bench, but not on the road.
Stadler had been charged with allowing the continued sale of the cars in Germany and the United States until 2018.
In May, the Munich Regional Court had offered Stadler the prospect of a suspended sentence of between one and a half and two years if he made a comprehensive admission of guilt and paid a €1.1 million ($1.2 million) fine. Stadler took the deal and confessed.
After this weeks closing arguments, the court is set to announce its final verdict on June 27.
On Tuesday, the lawyers for an accused engineer on trial, who is identified only by the initial P under Germany’s strict privacy rules, demanded a suspended sentence of well under two years.
They argued that their client had been involved in the exhaust manipulation of diesel cars because of his managers, who had demanded the quick delivery of engines that met requirements – including tough emissions standards – that could not be achieved without cheating.
The engineer’s confession early on in the case had contributed significantly to the investigation. The pre-trial detention as well as the length and costs of the two-and-a-half-year trial had weighed heavily on him, said his defence lawyers.
They sharply criticized the public prosecutor’s office, saying that it had adopted questionable investigation results from US lawyers in the preliminary proceedings. The United States had exploited the diesel scandal for the benefit of its own car industry, they said.
