As prime minister, Andrej Babis has gained immunity from potential criminal prosecution in France, which will last as long as he remains in office, according to French experts on international criminal law, Didier Rebut and William Julie.
Czech President Petr Pavel appointed ANO leader Babis as prime minister yesterday.
The French National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) has been investigating Babis since 2022 for possible tax offences in connection with his purchase of real estate in the south of France using offshore companies. Babis has previously denied any wrongdoing.
Last week, the PNF told CTK that Babis’s appointment as prime minister would not affect the investigation. According to the office’s spokeswoman, the PNF will conclude its investigation at the end of the year and decide whether to prosecute Babis in early 2026. The prosecutor’s office did not want to comment on the impact of immunity more specifically.
If criminal prosecution is launched, Babis will enjoy immunity as prime minister, according to both Rebut, who is director of the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Law at the Paris-Pantheon-Assas University, and William Julie, a lawyer specialising in international criminal law at the WJ Avocats office in Paris. According to Julie, this is personal immunity, which the French authorities grant only to heads of state and government as well as foreign ministers in office.
“As this immunity is absolute, the French authorities will not be able to prosecute [Babis] before the end of his mandate,” said Julie. He cited the example of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, who could not be prosecuted for terrorism by the French authorities in 2001 because he had personal immunity as a head of state.
“This immunity means that no act of coercion (in particular detention) can be used against him, and also no act that, even without coercion, could lead to prosecution (in particular summons for questioning),” Rebut said.
The two experts then added that the personal immunity in question was linked to the PM’s office. “Immunity thus ceases to apply with the end of the (prime minister’s) office,” Rebut explained.
He said that in his view, the French prosecutor’s office does not have to take into account the immunity granted to members of the Czech parliament in the Czech Republic.
Under the Czech constitution, MPs, including Babis, are protected from prosecution unless the Chamber of Deputies strips them of immunity and releases them for prosecution.
However, a foreign MP has no immunity in France unless they hold the positions of prime minister, foreign minister or president, Rebut noted.
“It does not matter that the acts he is accused of were committed before he took office (as prime minister) and are not political in nature,” Rebut said.
The transaction, which the French authorities are investigating, appeared in the leaked documents in the “Pandora Papers” case.
The French daily Le Monde has reported that Babis bought the villa in the south of France in September 2009 through a chain of offshore companies. According to the newspaper, two properties, including a villa with a three-hectare plot, were bought by a Monaco-based company, owned by an offshore company from the United States at the time. The properties cost 14 million euros (approximately CZK 338 million).
