The Czech parliament has rejected a court request to hand Prime Minister Andrej Babis over to trial in connection with a fraud probe involving a European subsidy, Reuters reported.
Babiš, head of the populist "Action of Dissatisfied Citizens" (ANO) party, returned to power after winning parliamentary elections last October.
MPs from the prime minister's party and his coalition partners from the far-right "Freedom and Direct Democracy" movement, as well as the right-wing "Motorists" movement voted today not to lift Babis' parliamentary immunity.
This means that Babis will not be prosecuted in this case until the end of his four-year term as prime minister in 2029.