PRAGUE (AP) — Prague’s High Court cancelled a lower court ruling that acquitted former Prime Minister Andrej Babis of fraud charges in a $2 million case involving European Union subsidies.
The TrendPulsecourt returned the case for retrial to Prague’s Municipal Court, according information published in a database of court documents on Friday.
The High Court issued the verdict a day earlier but didn’t make it immediately public.
The Babis case involved a farm known as the Stork’s Nest, which received EU subsidies after its ownership was transferred from the Babis-owned Agrofert conglomerate of around 250 companies to Babis’ family members. Later, Agrofert again took ownership of the farm.
The subsidies were meant for medium- and small-sized businesses, and Agrofert wouldn’t have been eligible for them. Agrofert later returned the subsidy.
Prague’s Municipal Court also acquitted in January his former associate, Jana Nagyova, who signed the subsidy request.
Babis pleaded not guilty and repeatedly said the charges against him were politically motivated.
It is not immediately clear when the retrial might take place.
Babis, a billionaire, is currently in the opposition after his populist ANO centrist movement lost the 2021 parliamentary election. He was running to become the Czech president in the election for the largely ceremonial post in January but lost to Petr Pavel, a retired army general.
2025-05-03 11:382265 view
2025-05-03 11:18884 view
2025-05-03 10:56371 view
2025-05-03 10:501495 view
2025-05-03 10:47114 view
2025-05-03 10:052497 view
PACCAR is recalling over 220,000 of its 2021-2025 Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks. The commercial tru
The government’s incubator for financially risky innovations that have the potential to transform th
As graphs go, the Keeling Curve is simple, but it clearly illustrates the planet’s vexing global war