Prague, Aug 24 (CTK) – The police request that parliament release two of its members, Andrej Babis and Jaroslav Faltynek (both ANO), for criminal prosecution shortly before the Czech general election is a police provocation and a deception of voters, President Milos Zeman told Barrandov television on Thursday.
As the police are unlikely to solve the case in two months, the voters will either believe that Babis and Faltynek caused a subsidy fraud or that they fell victim to a political provocation, Zeman said in an interview broadcast by the TV station.
The police delivered the request to have the two politicians released for prosecution to the Chamber of Deputies on August 10.
The billionaire Babis is the leader of the ANO movement, which is the favourite of the late October elections. Faltynek is ANO first deputy chairman. Babis was Czech finance minister and deputy prime minister from January 2014 to May 2017.
Babis and Faltynek have been facing a criminal complaint over the Capi hnizdo (Stork Nest) farm and congress complex since the late 2015. In 2007-08, the Capi hnizdo firm was a part of Agrofert, a giant chemical, agricultural and food-processing concern, of which Babis is the sole owner, though his ownership is not direct anymore. Afterwards, the firm’s owner changed through a chain of transactions that made the new owner hard to identify. Then it gained a 50-million-crown subsidy designed for small firms, which it could never gain as part of Agrofert. A few years later, it rejoined Agrofert.
Faltynek was a top manager in Agrofert.
Zeman told TV Barrandov that the police should have checked the suspicion last year or even two or three years ago.
He said he did not mind the planned prosecution of Babis and Faltynek, but only the timing.
Zeman said the Stork Nest case was similar to the report of elite police chief Jan Kubice, which harmed the Social Democrats (CSSD) shortly before the 2006 general election or with the suspicions related to the case of the head of the office of prime minister Petr Necas (Civic Democrats, ODS), due to which the Necas government fell in mid-2013.
The suspicion that the police were abused for political purposes is even stronger since the supervising state attorney did not know of the police action in advance, Zeman said.
Zeman said previously the winner of the elections would be named prime minister-designate who leads the government-forming talks.
The criminal prosecution of Babis would not prevent Zeman from appointing Babis prime minister, Zeman indicated, adding that it is the court that decides on the case.
