Charges against the billionaire and former prime minister for misuse of EU funds remained unabated for the court. Babiš can now go into the presidential election this weekend stronger than ever.
Hardly anyone in the Prague City Court courtroom expected this: after nearly seven years of investigations, former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš was acquitted of charges of misuse of EU subsidies. According to the judge, the evidence presented to the court for the prosecution was not sufficient to speak of a crime.
The court followed the defense’s motion with its decision. Prosecutors have asked for a three-year suspended sentence. The verdict is not yet final, the prosecutor’s office can appeal against it. The case concerned the financing of the Stork’s Nest recreation and congress center in Central Bohemia, which belonged to the large company Agrofert of the businessman Babiš.
The indictment accused the billionaire of having deliberately outsourced the resort to the large corporation to receive 50 million kroner (two million euros) for the stork’s nest from an EU subsidy fund for small and medium-sized businesses. The project was then again declared part of the Agrofert conglomerate.
In the past, EU investigative bodies declared Babiš’s actions in the Stork’s Nest case to be illegal, prompting Babiš to voluntarily refund EU money. This is one of the reasons why the judgment of the City Court of Prague came as a surprise to many.