Sutaj Estok: No Political Agreement behind Settlement with Babis

Komarno, October 22 (TASR-correspondent) - Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) denied on Tuesday that any political agreement was behind the conclusion of a settlement with Andrej Babis in a dispute concerning the protection of personality relating to unauthorised registration of the Czech ex-premier in the files of the erstwhile communist secret service the StB. "One of the reasons why we concluded a settlement based on analyses is that there was material hardship in this case. The Nation's Memory Institute (UPN) lost all its lawsuits at district, regional and supreme courts, and was only successful at the Constitutional Court, where it engaged in a challenge regarding the fact that Babis should not have sued UPN itself, but the Interior Ministry. Unfortunately, there are three verdicts - from the district, regional and supreme courts - that favour Babis, and that is why the analyses recommended that we should conclude this settlement in order to avoid economic losses," explained Sutaj Estok. The minister ruled out any behind-the-scenes agreements in this case, such as Babis's support for Peter Pellegrini in the presidential election campaign, for instance, and stressed that there is no politics behind the decision. According to the minister, Babis was the initiator of the conciliation. The Interior Ministry announced on Monday that it had reached a settlement with Babis in the above-mentioned dispute, acknowledging that the former Czech prime minister had been wrongfully registered as an agent of the StB under the code-name 'Bures' and that he had not knowingly cooperated with the secret service. Babis on the same day said that he'd never doubted that he would win the case, reiterating that he didn't cooperate with the StB and that there's no evidence to show otherwise. UPN told TASR that the legitimacy of Babis's registration as a secret StB collaborator is proven by several StB files that are linked to each other in content and chronology. "The decision of the Interior Ministry to conclude a settlement with A. Babis does not change this fact," stressed the institute. zel/df