Morning Briefing │ Thursday, February 15th, 2024

* PROTEST:

Some farmers’ groups say they plan to block the main “magistrála” through-road cutting through central Prague on Monday in protest at the poor situation in Czech agriculture.

The organisers say up to 1,000 tractors or other types of farm machinery could appear on the streets of the Czech capital on Monday.

* COURT:

Former Prime Minister Andrej Babis was acquitted for the second time in a $2 million fraud case related to European Union subsidies by a Prague court.

Babis, who pleaded not guilty, claimed the charges were politically motivated. The prosecution can still appeal the verdict, having requested a three-year suspended sentence and a fine for Babis.

* DRUGS:

The Czech government has moved to place sweets containing the psychoactive substance HHC on the list of banned addictive substances. According to Agriculture Minister Marek Výborný the measure is temporary and will have to be approved by the European Commission which may take between two to three weeks.

It should be enforced in March.

* STATISTICS:

The number of guns registered in Czechia exceeded one million last year, an increase of almost three percent, the Czech Press Agency reported citing police statistics.

Gun license holders also increased by three percent to almost 317,000.

* PALESTINE:

100 people protested Wednesday outside the Israeli embassy in Prague against ongoing onslaught on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

They shouted slogans demanding an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and expressed their reservations over the Czech Republic’s unequivocal diplomatic and military support for Israel.