MUNICH (dpa-AFX) - The Munich Regional Court has sentenced former Audi boss Rupert Stadler to a suspended prison term of one year and nine months. The chamber found him guilty of fraud on Tuesday.

The two co-defendants - former head of engine development and later Porsche board member Wolfgang Hatz and engineer P. - also received suspended sentences for fraud.

These are the first criminal sentences in Germany in the diesel scandal uncovered in 2015, which has shaken the entire industry and caused billions in damages. Hatz and engineer P. had confessed to manipulating diesel engines. In doing so, they complied with exhaust emission values on the test bench, but throttled the emission control on the road. Stadler confessed to having stopped the sale of manipulated cars too late.

The suspended sentences are conditional on the payment of large fines. The public prosecutor had already agreed to the suspended sentences for Stadler and P. as part of a plea bargain at trial, but in Hatz's case demanded a prison sentence without probation. The verdicts are not yet legally binding./rol/DP/jha