News

The police are due to interview the son of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, Andrej Babiš Jr., over allegations that he was abducted and taken to Russia and later Crimea. Though the case is several years old the police summonsed the son on the grounds that he is currently in the Czech Republic. He has welcomed the move.

Andrej Babiš Jr. said in 2018 that his father had wanted him to “disappear” at a time he was sought for questioning over a corruption case involving the PM. The latter said at the time that his son was mentally ill.

In recent weeks Babiš Jr. has spoken out publicly against his father on social media.

The Czech Republic is not among the European Union states that has halted the deportation of unsuccessful asylum seekers from Afghanistan to their homeland due to the Taliban takeover of major cities.

This emerges from statements made by Interior Minister Jan Hamáček (Social Democrats) to the news portal iDnes.cz. He said that each case would be examined individually and no blanket conditions are planned.

A total of 5 Afghans applied for asylum in the Czech Republic during the first six months of the year, according to the server. There are currently 34 Afghan citizens in detention centres for foreigners, where migrants await asylum, transferr to another EU member state or deportation.

The three companies invited to take part in a tender to build new blocks at the Dukovany nuclear power plant have agreed to undergo a security check, the Czech utility ČEZ announced on Friday.

The companies are EdF of France, KHNP of South Korea and Westinghouse of the US. ČEZ had said in June that prospective bidders should present the relevant security documentation by the end of November.

CNG of China and Rosatom of Russia and were excluded from the process, the latter due to evidence suggesting Russian military intelligence were behind a 2014 munitions storage site explosion on Czech territory.

The revered Czech sculptor Stanislav Hanzík, whose work adorns the public building interiors and spaces throughout the country, died on Thursday at the age of 90. He won numerous awards, including one that enabled him to study at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris in the early 1960s.

In later years, Mr Hanzík devoted himself to free sculpture, portraiture and realizations in architecture. Among his best-known works are those at the Chapel of St. George on Říp Mountain, and at the Czech National Theatre, Charles University, and Prague Castle.