Prague, Sept 27 (CTK) – A Czech court decided today that Finance Minister Andrej Babis must apologise to Moravia-Silesia Region’s Governor Miroslav Novak for his televised statement calling a planned industrial zone in the region a large-scale fraud and a business deal aimed to benefit Novak.
Babis (ANO) also has to pay compensation of 100,000 crowns to Novak (Social Democrats, CSSD), the court said.
Novak demanded twice as much.
Babis said he will not apologise and will appeal the verdict instead.
Babis, who is also a deputy prime minister, has to publish his apology for the statements he made on public Czech Television in August 2015 in the daily newspapers Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD), Pravo and Denik within one month after the verdict takes effect.
On the other hand, Babis need not apologise for his other statement comparing Novak to David Rath, former Central Bohemia governor for the CSSD who has been convicted of corruption.
By drawing the parallel, Babis only expressed his subjective opinion, the court said.
Novak told the court that not only he but also his family, including his underage daughter, came under strong pressure as a result of Babis’s statements.
He said Babis lashed out at him on the personal level that has nothing to do with the political or professional level. Babis did so out of dismay at Novak’s opposition to him in a government debate on the retirement age of miners, Novak said.
“I will not apologise, I will file an appeal,” Babis has written to CTK.
Once again he challenged the purchase of plots for building the industrial zone in Karvina.
“On behalf of the Moravia-Silesia Region, he [Novak] bought plots from a company belonging to large-scale fraudster [tycoon Zdenek] Bakala, and the industrial zone there is very dubious,” Babis wrote.
He drew a parallel between Novak and Rath again.
“It is true what I said previously, that the only difference between Rath and Novak is that Novak has never been caught red-handed. He is one of the symbols of corruption at the regional offices,” Babis wrote to CTK.
Novak’s defence lawyer Jana Zwyrtek Hamplova said “a person in the position like Babis and with his knowledge and authority in the state should consider their words before uttering them far more carefully than ordinary people.”
It cannot be in any civilised country’s interest to have a top politician making such defaming comments on another official, she said.
Babis did not turn up in the courtroom. His lawyer previously said Babis had only expressed his opinion and thereby made it clear that he does not view Novak as a trustworthy person.
The lawyer mentioned some previous verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights, which emphasised a special importance of the freedom of speech for elected officials.
