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On Thursday morning, MEPs will decide whether it will be possible to continue investigating the Stork’s Nest case again. They will again vote on whether they will extradite former Prime Minister and now members of the ANO opposition movement Andrej Babiš to prosecute.
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This was interrupted 144 days ago, when Babiš was re-elected in last autumn’s elections and gained a new immunity with a new mandate.
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It is still valid, so the prosecutor Jaroslav Šaroch could not announce whether he would send the case to court, ie that Babiš and with him the accused former manager of Agroferta, Jana Mayerová (Nagyová), are being indicted, as the police suggested. However, the public prosecutor can also stop their prosecution.
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However, Sharoch will be able to announce the decision only after the deputies issue Babiš. Which seems likely. As the Report of the individual representatives of the parliamentary groups found out, there are not only government deputies who have a majority for the release of Babiš, but the opposition SPD will support it.
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“As always in the past, our MEPs have a free vote on extradition. The recommendation is to vote according to the Mandate and Immunity Committee for extradition. I have voted twice already, “said ODS chief deputy Marek Benda.
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As Benda pointed out, the Chamber of Deputies had voted for Babiš’s extradition in the past in September 2017 and then in January 2018. In the second case, there were 69 deputies, all from the YES movement.
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A similar attitude can be expected from Babiš’s people in Thursday’s vote. According to YO deputies Ivo Vondrák or Patrik Nacher, for example, will vote against the issue.
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“I am very worried about how the whole case is dragging on. Many people have been and are convinced that the whole case is clear and Andrej Babiš is guilty. It turns out that this is not the case and the state of affairs is that this situation is being abused in the political struggle, “Vondrák explained his position.
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“The longer it stretches, the smaller the reasons for extraditing Mr. Babiš. That is why I will be voting as before. So against his release. At the moment, this thing is in the fifteenth place for me, “said Nacher.
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According to them, deputies from the Babiš movement did not receive recommendations on how to vote in this regard. Everyone has to decide for themselves. However, it is expected that one of the main speakers for YES should be Jaroslav Faltýnek, Deputy Chairman of the YES parliamentary group. He was also previously charged in this case, but prosecutor Šaroch has stopped his prosecution before.
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On the contrary, deputies from the Mayors movement, according to the club’s chairman Josef Cogan, will follow the recommendations of the immune committee. “Personally, I have no doubt that there are conditions for prosecuting a member of parliament,” Cogan added.
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According to its chairman Jan Jakob, all members of TOP 09 will also vote for the release of Babiš. “There is a reasonable suspicion of subsidy fraud and it is necessary for the bodies active in criminal proceedings to act and the court to decide the matter,” wrote the head of pirate deputies Jakub Michálek.
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The People’s Party also expects that Babiš will be re-prosecuted. “I also respect Andrej Babiš’s repeated interest in the past, when he voted for his release. Let the court decide, “wrote the head of the deputies Marek Výborný.
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And the deputies from the SPD should also vote for the release of Babiš. “We recommend that we all vote in favor of the issue. The case must be slashed, “said SPD MP Jaroslav Foldyna.
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Andrej Babiš himself sent his statement to the deputies in mid-February. He reiterated in it that in this case it was his purposeful criminalization. “It is not at all clear from the current request what criminal activity I should be extradited to do, because the act described there could not have happened,” Babiš added.
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At the same time, he asked deputies to reconsider his extradition. Earlier, he wanted them to prosecute him.
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In the Čapí hnízdo case, detectives have been investigating suspicions for many years that the allocation of a subsidy of almost 50 million crowns for the construction of a recreational and congress complex near Olbramovice in the Benešov region was not justified.
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The Stork’s Nest farm collected it, but according to the police, she was not entitled to it. It was not a small and medium-sized enterprise to which the subsidy was intended and as declared. According to the investigators’ version, Farma Čapí hnízdo was purposefully removed from the Agrofert holding in order to obtain support.
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