Prague, (CTK) – The state attorney has drafted a resolution deciding on the continuation of criminal prosecution of Czech PM-in resignation Andrej Babis (ANO) and ANO first deputy head Jaroslav Faltynek, Prague Municipal State Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Stepanka Zenklova has told CTK.
The state attorney’s office will send the resolution to the two lawmakers’ lawyers later today or on Thursday morning.
Then the investigation into the case may continue.
The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Czech parliament, released both MPs last Friday, for the second time.
Their prosecution, for which the previous Chamber of Deputies released them last September, was interrupted as they were re-elected MPs and regained immunity last October. The police therefore had to ask the Chamber of Deputies for their release again.
Babis and Faltynek deny any wrongdoing in the case. They call the accusations fabricated and expedient.
The police have accused Babis of a subsidy fraud and harming the EU financial interests, and ANO deputy group head Jaroslav Faltynek of assisting in a subsidy fraud in the Capi hnizdo case. Another nine people are accused in the case, including Babis’s wife and his two adult children from the first marriage.
The European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) dealt with the case, too.
Until late 2007, the Farma Capi hnizdo company belonged to Babis’s Agrofert concern. Afterwards, its stake was transferred to bearer shares so that Capi hnizdo as a small firm could win the subsidy of 50 million crowns, which a firm of the huge Agrofert could never get. It observed this condition for a few years, but later it became part of Agrofert again. Moreover, the investigators concluded that there was no economic or trade reason to make the change.
In February 2017, billionaire businessman Babis transferred Agrofert to trust funds to comply with an amended conflict of interest law.