Former Czech populist billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis was acquitted in a business fraud case for the second time, boosting his hopes to return to power after next year’s general elections, according to Bloomberg.
A court in Prague rejected the prosecutor’s charges on Wednesday, according to which the current opposition leader illegally used 50 million koruna ($2.1 million) in European Union funds before he joined politics. The same panel acquitted Babis a year ago, but an appellate court ordered a new hearing.
The chemicals and agriculture magnate has consistently denied any wrongdoing, portraying the charges as politically motivated.
While the judge rejected Babis’s claims of political influence during his televised courtroom comments, he said the evidence did not prove fraudulent intent to abuse EU subsidies beyond reasonable doubt.
“I’m happy,” Babis wrote on platform X after the verdict.
The court win is a boost for Babis, whose ANO is the largest party in parliament and tops all opinion polls while the popularity of the current ruling coalition has dwindled. Accusations of fraud and a conflict of interest contributed to his ouster as premier after the 2021 ballot as most parties refused to team up with him, followed by his failed presidential run a year ago.
A politically isolated Babis has been ramping up verbal attacks on democratic institutions from the judiciary to public-service media. His latest rant came after the Constitutional Court rejected ANO’s lawsuit against a move by the administration of Prime Minister Petr Fiala to slow pension growth and reduce the budget deficit from record levels reached during Babis’s rule.
