Overview

• On July 1, the Braunschweig regional court provisionally halted the criminal proceedings after ruling that Martin Winterkorn is currently unfit to stand trial due to ongoing serious illness.
• Judges classified Winterkorn’s condition as a temporary procedural obstacle but gave no timeline for resuming the trial.
• The 78-year-old faces charges of commercial fraud, market manipulation and unauthorised false testimony related to Volkswagen’s 2015 emissions cheating.
• His individual trial, which began in September 2024, was interrupted after only a few days by an accident that exacerbated his health problems.
• The decision follows convictions in late May of four other VW executives, highlighting the wider legal reckoning over the Dieselgate scandal.