A German court on Thursday indefinitely postponed the fraud trial of former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn for his role in the carmaker's "dieselgate" emissions-cheating scandal because of a health condition.

Winterkorn, 74, was set to appear before the court in later this month but a recent operation left the former auto boss "unable" to appear, according to a medical opinion referenced in a statement by the Brunswick district court.

The trial of the four other defendants, accused of organised commercial fraud and tax evasion, will still take place as scheduled on September 16, a decision intended to avoid "further delay", the court said.

Proceedings had already been postponed twice due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Making a "sufficiently reliable prognosis" about Winterkorn's recovery was not possible, the court said, but said that the total duration of the now sperate trials would not "double" as a result.

Explaining the decision, the court referred to the opinion of the public prosecutor that the charges against Winterkorn related to less than one percent of the manipulated vehicles.

The Volkswagen group was plunged into crisis in 2015 when it admitted to installing cheating software in millions of diesel vehicles worldwide to dupe pollution tests.

The first senior executive to go on trial over dieselgate was Rupert Stadler, former CEO of VW subsidiary Audi, whose fraud proceedings opened in Munich last year.

In June, Winterkorn agreed a settlement with Volkswagen to pay the company around 11 million euros ($13 million) in damages in relation to the scandal.

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