Andrej Babiš, leader of the populist ANO party, has been found not guilty of misusing EU funds.
A Czech court has found the former Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Andrej Babishin acquitted of the embezzlement of EU subsidies at the end of a years-long investigation.
The court’s decision improves Babiš’s chances of becoming president of the Czech Republic in the weekend elections. Babiš was already one of the three early favorites in the first round of the elections, news site Politicon (you are moving to another service) the opinion polls compiled tell.
According to the news agency Reuters, however, Babiš would be at the bottom in the second round of the election.
According to the court, Babiš did not embezzle approximately two million euros in subsidies, which he used to develop his own holiday and conference center near the capital Prague. The suspected embezzlement would have taken place in 2007.
The suspicion of corruption was investigated for years. The EU’s anti-corruption authority Olaf presented in its report in 2018 that Babiš had broken several laws, the newspaper The Guardian says. (you switch to another service)
It is possible to appeal the court’s decision to higher courts.
Babiš is one of the richest people in the Czech Republic and served as Prime Minister from 2017 to 2021. Babiš’s term as prime minister ended with a narrow election defeat, when his large tax haven holdings were revealed just a few days before the election in the Pandora’s Papers leak.
The French authorities are still investigating the transactions revealed in Babiš’s data leak.