A former associate of Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš has been convicted of fraud and handed a three-year suspended sentence by Prague’s Municipal Court. Jana Nagyová, now a member of the European Parliament, was found guilty of defrauding the European Union and damaging its financial interests in a case centred on a farm known as the Stork’s Nest. She was also fined 500,000 Czech crowns (approximately $24,000). The verdict is not final and Nagyová can appeal.
Nagyová’s prosecution was made possible after the European Parliament lifted her immunity. She had previously appeared before the parliament’s legal affairs committee in January 2025 to argue against the move. The delay in that decision had temporarily blocked Czech judicial proceedings in the Stork’s Nest case, including any appeal.
The prime minister’s immunity
Andrej Babiš was also a defendant in the same $2 million (50 million Czech crowns) fraud case but cannot be sentenced because Czech lawmakers rejected a motion to lift his immunity from prosecution in March. The vote in the 200-seat lower house of parliament was 104 to 81 against lifting his immunity. This means legal proceedings against the prime minister are frozen until at least 2029, when his term in the lower house expires. Babiš, who began his third term as prime minister in December, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and described the case as “clearly politically motivated”.
Prague’s Municipal Court had previously acquitted Babiš twice in connection with the same affair, but an appeals court overturned both rulings, stating that the lower court had not properly assessed the evidence and directing it to return a guilty verdict in a retrial. That retrial is now blocked by Babiš’s immunity.
The Stork’s Nest farm case
The case revolves around a farm complex known as the Stork’s Nest, which received EU subsidies after its ownership was transferred from Babiš’s Agrofert conglomerate to his family members. Later, Agrofert reacquired the farm. The subsidies were intended for small- and medium-sized enterprises, meaning that Agrofert, a large conglomerate involved in food, chemicals and media, would not have been eligible. The company later returned the subsidy.
Investigators believe Babiš arranged for the ownership transfer in late 2007 and early 2008 to make the farm appear eligible for the subsidy. Nagyová allegedly submitted the application. The European Union’s Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) also investigated the matter. Czech police subsequently recommended the indictment of Babiš and ten other individuals for fraud amounting to approximately 50 million Czech crowns (2 million euros).
In 2018, Imoba, an Agrofert subsidiary that owned the Stork’s Nest complex, agreed to voluntarily return the 50 million crown subsidy to the EU. That repayment did not end the legal proceedings. Beyond the fraud case, Babiš has faced separate investigations for tax fraud and evasion related to the Stork’s Nest and for conflict of interest stemming from his ties to Agrofert.
Nagyová has a separate criminal record. In 2014, while serving as chief of staff to then-prime minister Petr Nečas, she was found guilty of abusing the country’s military intelligence by commissioning it to spy on Nečas’s wife. The scandal brought down the government. Nagyová received a 12-month suspended sentence and a four-year ban from public service in that case.
Political backdrop
Babiš returned to power after his ANO (YES) movement won a decisive victory in the October election, forming a governing coalition with two smaller groups: the anti-migrant Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) party, led by Tomio Okamura, and the right-wing Motorists party. The coalition holds a majority in the lower house. Its agenda includes steering the country away from supporting Ukraine and rejecting key EU policies. Babiš has expressed reservations about continued military aid to Ukraine and has questioned the EU’s readiness for Ukraine’s membership, though he condemns Vladimir Putin’s invasion and has been characterised as a “peacenik” in the conflict. His coalition partners hold strongly anti-immigration and pro-Russian stances.
