former Czech Republic's Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, gestures as he speaks to the media in Prague, Czech Republic, on January 28, 2023. (source: Marko Drobnjakovic/TASR)
Andrej Babiš, who was served as Czech prime minister between 2017 to 2021, has been appearing in court cases for the past 11 years in an attempt to clear his name.
Babiš is listed in the documents of the Czechoslovak State Security (ŠtB), one of the main arms of represssion during the communist-era police state, as a secret agent. The records list his codename as "Bureš". But the tycoon, who was born in Slovakia and moved into Czech politics after acquiring a fortune in business, insists that he had nothing to do with the ŠtB.
A number of rulings have been published, including two by the Slovak Constitutional Court. More recently, the Slovak Supreme Court published its third decision in this case. However, it does not answer Babiš’s question as to whether he was listed as an agent illegally, the Sme daily writes.
Instead, the Supreme Court told him to sue someone else, namely the Slovak Interior Ministry. Babiš had sued the Nation’s Memory Institute (ÚPN), a body that handles the documents of state security authorities under previous totalitarian regimes. The court explained that the ŠtB fell under the former Czechoslovak Socialist Republic’s Federal Interior Ministry, adding that the Slovak Interior Ministry is its successor.
Why not the ÚPN?
The court noted that the ÚPN could not be responsible for Babiš’s name appearing in the published documents because that institution did not decide on whether to add his name to a list of collaborators in the first place. The institute was founded in 2003.
In September, Babiš complained about the sluggishness of the Slovak courts. Citing delays, he had turned to the European Court for Human Rights in 2018. Around that time, the Constitutional Court told Babiš that the ÚPN was not the institution he should have sued, but did not say to whom he should address his complaint.
“I will fight for the rest of my life, I will never give up, and will clear my name,” he told a Czech news agency at the time. Babiš turned 69 in September this year.
His lawsuit against the ÚPN seems now to be resolved. But the ongoing case, now against the Slovak Interior Ministry, will be handled by the Bratislava IV City Court.
In courtrooms since 2012
Babiš filed his first lawsuit in the case back in 2012. At first, the court ruled in favour of Babiš, but this changed in 2018 when another court decided that his name appeared in the ŠtB records legally. Later, the court dealt with the question of who was responsible for listing Babiš as an ŠtB agent.
The records held by the ÚPN suggest that Babiš began to work for the ŠtB in 1980. Two years later, he allegedly became an agent. The cooperation ended in 1985.
