The Municipal Court of Prague dismissed the charges against billionaire and former Prime Minister Andriy Babis and Jana Nadeva in the case of EU subsidies for the "Stork's Nest" conference center.
This is reported by "News" publication.
"Firstly, the defendant Jan Nadev and, secondly, the defendant Andrii Babish were acquitted on the charge of the prosecutor of the Prague Municipal Prosecutor's Office," said judge Jan Schott.
The decision is not final, the prosecutor can appeal to the High Court of Prague.
The court's meeting hall has 75 seats for members of the public, 29 of which were occupied by accredited journalists. After 8 o'clock in the morning, the press secretary of the court started issuing tickets, which were free.
Shortly before the sentencing, a member of the public interrupted the proceedings, shouting that the trial was illegal. The judge ordered him to be removed from the courtroom.
The case concerns a 50 million dollar grant for the construction of a conference center in the central Czech Republic. State representative Yaroslav Sharokh accused Nadyova of fraud with subsidies and causing damage to the financial interests of the EU, and Babish - of aiding and abetting fraud with subsidies.
Babiš's trial includes allegations that he illegally used an EU subsidy before he founded his ANO party in 2011 to build the Stork's Nest conference center outside Prague, hiding his ownership of the project.
Babis denied illegal actions and repeatedly dismissed the case against him as political.
The European Commission found him guilty of a conflict of interest because Agrofert, which employs more than 30,000 people, used development subsidies while he was in government.
Babis, the country's fifth-richest person according to Forbes' 2021 list, is one of the favorites in the election, the first round of voting of which starts on January 13-14.
Polls show that Babis, former Czech army general Petro Pavlo and former university chancellor Danushe Nerudova have equal chances to advance to the second round, where the top two candidates will face off on January 27-28.
We will remind you that the candidate for the presidency of the Czech Republic, the former prime minister Andriy Babis refused the debate with the opponents organized by the Czech Television, the Prima TV channel and the Blesk.cz portal - he claims that they want to make a show out of the elections.