Stork's Nest case: Nagyová to appeal to Czech Supreme Court

Prague's High Court has finished drafting the written reasoning for its ruling, issued in late August, which upheld the conviction of Jana Nagyová — a former chief of staff to Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and now an ANO member of the European Parliament — in the Stork's Nest (Čapí hnízdo) farm case. The court gave her a suspended sentence and a fine of 500,000 crowns, and her lawyer, Josef Bartončík, intends to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court.

What the court decided, and what happens next

According to Eliška Duchková, spokeswoman for Prague's High Court, the ruling in the Stork's Nest case has already been handed over to the court registry. Once finalised, it will be sent electronically to the Prague Municipal Court and the Prague High Public Prosecutor's Office, and the entire case file is due to reach the Prague Municipal Court on Thursday. Nagyová's lawyer, Josef Bartončík, will file an appeal to the Supreme Court on her behalf and is also preparing a submission to Justice Minister Jeroným Tejc — also of ANO — as he disagrees with the way the High Court handled the case.

Nagyová's position

Nagyová herself disagrees with the verdict. “As long as I still have the one legal avenue left to defend my name and prove my innocence, I will use it. Staying silent and accepting an injustice would mean accepting it,” she said. According to her, a final decision on further steps will be made once the High Court's written ruling has been received.

Dispute over the first-instance ruling

Bartončík also intends to file his submission because he disagrees with how, in June last year, Judge Eva Brázdilová overturned an acquittal handed down by Municipal Court judge Jan Šott and simultaneously instructed him on how to proceed. Šott, who had twice acquitted Nagyová and Prime Minister Babiš, went on to convict Nagyová anyway — but did so specifically on the High Court's instructions. As he himself noted in his ruling, he personally believes no crime was committed in this case. He did not convict Babiš only because lawmakers this year refused to hand him over for prosecution.

Ten years of investigations and trials

In March 2016, Andrej Babiš, then finance minister, stated that the shares in the Stork's Nest farm company were owned by two of his children and by his wife Monika's brother, Martin Herodes. In August 2017, the Chamber of Deputies received the first request to hand over Andrej Babiš and then-ANO deputy Jaroslav Faltýnek for criminal prosecution: on 6 September 2017 lawmakers voted to hand them over, and in early October that year the defendants received notice that criminal proceedings had begun. Originally, 11 people were implicated in the case.

The panel of judges chaired by Eva Brázdilová is convinced of the defendants' guilt. According to her, the body of evidence against Nagyová and Babiš is so extensive that it forms a complete chain of proof, and two separate crimes were committed in the case. Brázdilová also noted that Nagyová and Babiš took steps to secure a 50-million-crown subsidy for the Stork's Nest farm to which it was not entitled. In the appellate court's view, the idea of setting up Stork's Nest undoubtedly belonged to Babiš himself, and the court did not believe the version of events in which he handed the farm to his children so they could try their hand at business.

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz