Former Audi CEO Rupert Stadler released from jail in diesel emissions case

Despite the Dieselgate investigation being nowhere near its end, German lawmakers have decided to let Rupert Stadler out of jail on a conditional release

A Munich court has passed orders to release former Audi CEO Rupert Stadler from jail, where he had been since June 2018. His conditional release is the result of a successful appeal after a lower court ruled against it in August 2018, and according to which he must post bail and mustn’t contact any witnesses involved in the fraud investigation during his time out. He has in no measure been acquitted of the charges.

The German judges have served a warning that there's still significant evidence against him in the ongoing criminal probe over the diesel emission scandal. Stadler's arrest in June 2018 came after a wire-tapped phone call revealed that Stadler tampered the evidence in the investigation.

Audi ended all ties with Stadler shortly after his 18th June arrest, and on 2nd October 2018, they announced that Stadler had officially left Audi's parent company Volkswagen AG as well, where he was an executive board member. Rupert Stadler was among the highest-ranking executives who were detained after Volkswagen AG got engulfed in the Dieselgate scandal nearly three years ago.

Despite the ongoing investigation which presses criminal charges against Stadler, Volkswagen has repeatedly refused to condone that senior profiles such as Stadler were aware of the malpractice that stretched for nearly a decade. While Audi paid a hefty settlement fine of 800 million euros to end the case against the company, individual employees and managers are yet to receive any relaxation from the court's scrutiny.