- The Municipal Court in Prague set aside the case of Andrej Babiš for separate proceedings.
- The criminal proceedings against Janá Nagyová will continue and will begin in the coming months.
- Andrej Babiš cannot now be prosecuted for the decision of the Chamber of Deputies.
On Thursday, the Municipal Court in Prague set aside part of the Čapí hnízdo case concerning Prime Minister Andrej Babiš for separate proceedings. The server Novinky.cz drew attention to the decision. Deputies last week refused to extradite Babiš for criminal prosecutionthe court will continue with only the defendant MEP and former manager of Agrofert, Jana Nagyová. The prime minister said that he would support her, reports the correspondent of TASR in Prague.
“Today we decided to exclude the criminal case of Mr. Babiš for separate proceedings, because the proceedings against him cannot be continued at the present time and must remain suspended due to the decision of the Chamber of Deputies. In relation to Ms. Nagyová, the proceedings will be able to continue, because the case of Mr. Babiš was excluded.” said the chairman of the court’s senate, Jan Šott. He added that the main hearing with Nagy will begin within one to two months.
The MEP is charged with subsidy fraud, which, according to the indictment, was induced by Babiš. The case concerns the eligibility of a subsidy of 50 million crowns for the construction of the Farmy Čapí hnízdo area near the village of Olbramovice in the Central Bohemian region. The municipal court in Prague has already acquitted both Babiš and Nagyová twice, but the judgments were overturned by the appeals court, which, moreover, obliged the trial court last year to find both of them guilty.
Last week, however, the Czech deputies decided that they would not extradite the prime minister for criminal prosecution. His part of the case will not resume until after he is out of office. In contrast, Nagy was stripped of her immunity by MEPs last year. The prime minister said last week that he will support Nagy, pay all the costs and if he has time, he will also go to the court hearing. At that time, he again called the case a political process.
