The Prague High Court panel drafting a written decision for the ‘Stork’s Nest’ (‘Capi hnizdo’) case has had the deadline for its decision extended, according to reports from Seznam Zpravy. In June, the court overturned the acquittal of ANO leader Andrej Babis on charges of subsidy fraud, and a retrial is now underway. However, the deadline extension means the verdict will likely not be delivered before the October general elections.
The indictment accuses Babis and Jana Nagyova, Babis’s former aide who is now an MEP for ANO, of aiding and abetting subsidy fraud.
The basic 20-day period for drafting the decision ended this week. “In the case in question, the deadline for drafting a written decision has been extended until 30 August 2025,” Prague High Court spokesman Vit Tomas Vatra told Seznam Zpravy. He added that this was common practice in case of complicated decisions.
Libor Vavra, the president of the Judges’ Union, said he believed the verdict would not be delivered before the elections in early October.
According to pre-election polls, ANO is the clear leader in the upcoming parliamentary elections. Babis will almost certainly sit in the newly formed Chamber of Deputies. The court will therefore have to ask the lower house for the fourth time to release Babis from immunity to criminal prosecution.
The indictment states that Babis arranged for Farma Capi Hnizdo to be taken out of Agrofert at the turn of 2007 and 2008, and sold shares to his children and partner. According to investigators, he did this so that the company would appear to meet the conditions for obtaining EU subsidies intended for small and medium-sized businesses. According to the prosecution, Nagyova successfully applied for the subsidy, and the payment of the subsidy caused CZK 49.9 million in damages to the Central Bohemia Region. The company returned the disputed subsidy in 2018.
Babis and Nagyova were acquitted last February by the Prague Municipal Court, but at the end of June, the Prague High Court overturned this decision. The court stated that it saw signs of criminal offences in the individual steps in the case. The municipal court will have to take up the case again, as the appeals panel obliged it with its legal opinion.
Babis has long denied guilt and has insisted that the charges are political. He described the high court’s decision as “completely absurd, misguided and deliberate”.
