Prague, Aug 11 (CTK) – The Czech government ANO movement’s deputy chairman Jaroslav Faltynek sees his prosecution in the Capi hnizdo (Stork Nest) case as police bullying and he will not resign as a lawmaker, he said on public Czech Television on Thursday.
The police asked the Chamber of Deputies for the release of ANO head Andrej Babis and Faltynek for prosecution over a possible subsidy fraud in connection with Babis’s Capi hnizdo farm in central Bohemia on Thursday.
Faltynek told CT that he had nothing in common with the subsidy application and that he will leave it up to voters to decide in the October general election about whether he will continue as a deputy.
“I as a former member of the Agrofert board do not know anything at all about the subsidy application,” Faltynek said, adding that he wonders of what the police want to accuse him.
Until 2007, the Farma Capi hnizdo company belonged to Babis’s Agrofert Holding. Afterwards, its stake was transferred to bearer shares for a small firm to reach a 50-million-crown EU subsidy, which a firm of the huge Agrofert Holding could never get. It observed this condition for a few years, but later it again returned to Babis’s concern.
Billionaire businessman Babis transferred the Agrofert concern, including some media outlets, to trust funds in February to comply with an amended conflict of interest law.
Faltynek told CT that he does not trust the police in the Capi hnizdo case.
“I consider it a sort of bullying by the police because I do not know about being connected with the Capi hnizdo subsidy in any way,” he said.
If the Chamber of Deputies complies with the police request and releases him for prosecution, he will not give up his mandate.
“The election will be held in two months, let us the public decide about what will follow after the election,” Faltynek said.
He added that his ANO post is in the hands of the movement’s members and party bodies.
Babis said at a special lower house session initiated by the opposition earlier this year his adult children and a brother of his common-law wife (whom he married recently) owned the bearer shares of the farm in 2008-2010 when the firm gained the subsidy.
Server neovlivni.cz has written that there exist proves of Babis having had detailed information of the Capi hnizdo project financing. For instance, he signed an agreement on credit guarantees with which the Farma Capi hnizdo company covered a part of the construction.
In the relevant period, Faltynek was a deputy chairman of the board of the ZZN Pelhrimov holding which controlled Farma Capi hnizdo at a time. The police say he participated in the expedient taking of Farma Capi hnizdo from the holding with the aim of making it eligible for a subsidy, the server wrote.
