Supreme state attorney: EU report on Babiš “serious”

The supreme state attorney, Pavel Zeman, says the findings of a preliminary European Commission audit, which states that Prime Minister Andrej Babiš is in conflict of interest, are serious and could give rise to suspicion of a criminal offence. He made the comment on Czech Television on Sunday.

Mr. Zeman said the Supreme State Attorney’s Office was preparing its own analysis of the report, which was published by Czech media outlets on Friday, and would reach conclusions in a fortnight or three weeks.

The European Commission document says that Mr. Babiš has command of trust funds that control the Agrofert group. He put the conglomerate into those trust funds two years ago to comply with a new conflict of interest law.

The Commission says that all EU subsidies received by Agrofert since should be returned. It has put at CZK 450 million the figure that the Czech state should demand the return of from the group started by Babiš. He denies any wrongdoing.