Czech PM's Son Says Held In Crimea Against His Will

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s younger son claims he was forcibly detained in Crimea by his father’s associates at the time of the investigation of the Stork’s Nest affair.

Babiš Senior has been intermittently under investigation since 2015 wherein the prime minister was accused of concealing his ownership of the Čapí Hnízdo (Storks Nest) farm and attached convention centre in order to illegally obtain €2 million in EU subsidies meant for small businesses.

Čapí Hnízdo was owned by Agrofert, a Prague-based conglomerate holding company owned by Andrej Babiš, which would have been ineligible for the small business subsidies. In 2007 ownership of the property was transferred to a small anonymous company which was able to apply for the subsidies, but it was later revealed that the shareholders in the new company were Babiš Junior and his sister Adriana; Babiš Senior’s partner – now his wife – Monika; and Monika’s brother Martin Herodes.

A brief interview with Seznam reports that Babis’s son, who is also named Andrej, was coerced into traveling to Crimea on a vacation that turned into an “abduction.”

He said he had spent some time in a psychiatric institution in the past. Babiš Jr. also revealed that he had signed some papers, but had no idea what he was signing and he was held against his will “for a long time”, including at rented apartments in Sevastopol and Yalta.

Czech Prime Minister said that his son was mentally ill and denied he was abducted, writing on Facebook that he had “left the Czech Republic of his own will” and that “police have investigated the case and concluded that there was no abduction.”

The opposition parties are demanding an immediate explanation from the prime minister and have threatened to call a vote of no-confidence in his government over the matter. 

Author: red