Sentenced for “massive tax evasion”, will Patrick and Isabelle Balkany end up in prison after breaches under electronic bracelets? The Rouen Court of Appeal decides on Thursday the fate of the former LR mayor of Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine) and his wife. On January 24, the general prosecutor’s office in Rouen “required confirmation” of the revocation on December 17, by the court for the application of sentences (TAP) in Evreux, of their placement under electronic bracelets, a judicial source indicated on Tuesday. at AFP.
This decision followed a hundred “incidents” having caused their bracelets to ring at the Moulin de Cossy, their residence in Giverny (Eure) where they have been under house arrest under electronic surveillance since March 2021. The Balkanys appealed this revocation. . In the meantime, they are free, said the judicial source.
A possible appeal in cassation not suspensive
According to acquaintances of Patrick Balkany interviewed by AFP, the ex-mayor has been seen several times in recent weeks in Levallois-Perret, in particular at the market and at the city’s basketball club. The decision of the Court of Appeal is expected in the early afternoon.
If the revocation is maintained, will the former baron of the French right, friend of Nicolas Sarkozy, and his wife sleep in prison on Thursday evening? “It all depends on whether the documents are sent immediately or not” by the general prosecutor’s office to the Evreux prosecutor’s office, which will have to implement the decision, explained the source. The public prosecutor’s office can decide to wait for the time limit for appealing in cassation (5 days). A possible appeal would not allow the couple to escape prison. The court can also put the Balkany back under electronic bracelets.
“A bit of casualness”
It remains to be seen where the couple will be, who reigned almost continuously for thirty years over Levallois-Perret, an upscale commune in the west of Paris snatched from the Communists in 1983. If we judge by Isabelle Balkany’s Twitter account , the latter said gardening at the Cossy mill in recent days.
According to Médiapart quoting Pierre-Olivier Sur, Isabelle Balkany’s lawyer, the decision to dismiss the TAP follows “a hundred ringing incidents, and a little casualness. “They are not allowed to leave the house but when the dog comes out, they run after it, when the postman comes by, they go to the gate,” Me Sur had assured. “At the time of the hearing (in Evreux), the device was finally settled so that there were no more incidents”.
attempted suicide
Isabelle Balkany, 74, was sentenced to three years without a warrant, the court taking into account her state of health, after a suicide attempt in early May 2019. But Patrick Balkany was released, very thin, on February 12 2020 for health reasons, with a light judicial review, after five months spent between the Parisian health remand center and the hospital. In April 2021, he will also be hospitalized for five days for pulmonary edema and heart failure.
On March 4, 2020, the Paris Court of Appeal reduced his sentence for tax evasion to three years, without sending him back to bars because of his state of health. His wife receives the same sentence. It is this first part of a vast procedure of tax evasion which results in their placement under electronic bracelet at the beginning of 2021.
At the same time, the couple was sentenced at the end of 2019 for having hidden 13 million euros in assets from the tax authorities between 2007 and 2014. In this second part, their prison sentence without immediate imprisonment, for aggravated money laundering, is increased on appeal the May 27, 2020. The Court of Cassation has since found them guilty but the Paris Court of Appeal must re-examine the quantum of the sentences on February 9.