Representatives of the plaintiffs in the compensation case filed by investors against the German car group Volkswagen over the diesel scandal tried to confront the company's former CEO Martin Winterkorn with what they considered contradictory statements from the former official who testified before the court as a witness.

Lawyer Axel Viegner in Braunschweig expressed on Tuesday the plaintiffs' representatives' dissatisfaction with the answers given by Winterkorn, "aged 76," because he did not describe the paths of certain events with sufficient plausibility.

Winterkorn did not respond to the accusation and patiently continued answering the plaintiffs' questions, saying in one instance: "When you ask me in such a specific manner, I have to explain the matter from the beginning."

The interrogation of Volkswagen's former CEO regarding the manipulation of diesel car emissions continued in the third session of the trial, where Winterkorn was summoned as a witness in the civil lawsuit filed before the Braunschweig Court of Appeal.

The case revolves around a lawsuit filed by investors since 2018 under the Model Civil Procedure Act for investors, seeking nearly 4.4 billion euros to compensate for stock losses they suffered after the scandal was discovered in September 2015.

Winterkorn had said in the previous session that he learned about the issues with U.S. authorities regarding diesel car emissions "very late" and that his knowledge of these issues "was not complete at the outset."

He added: "If I had been fully informed about the internal operations in the technical departments responsible, I would not have hesitated to address matters directly and clarify them," noting that he could have traveled to the United States if necessary to secretly talk with U.S. authorities.

Winterkorn’s testimony before the court comes more than 8 years after the diesel emissions scandal exploded involving the giant German car manufacturing group Volkswagen manipulating the results of emission tests in its diesel-powered vehicles.

Winterkorn resigned from Volkswagen’s chairmanship in September 2015, a few days after the scandal erupted, but he said he did not know anything about the manipulation that had occurred.

It is worth mentioning that the diesel car emissions scandal erupted when Volkswagen Group admitted to using illegal software to reduce emission amounts during testing compared to the amount of emissions emitted during normal driving conditions.