Isabelle Balkany once again escapes prison. The former first assistant of Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine) sentenced to a prison term for tax evasion with her husband Patrick Balkany, will indeed benefit from a conditional release from March 6, a-t -we learned from the Evreux prosecutor’s office.
According to the public prosecutor of Évreux, Rémi Coutin, asked by AFP, Isabelle Balkany’s lawyer had seized the sentence enforcement judge (JAP) of Évreux to request “a suspension of sentence for reasons medical”. The judge refused this request this week “but granted parole to Ms. Balkany as of March 6, a position in accordance with the requisitions of the prosecution”, underlines Rémi Coutin.
If Patrick Balkany was reincarcerated from February to August 2022, his wife, who had been hospitalized for a long time and who had announced that she was suffering from lung cancer, was not placed in detention. This week, Isabelle Balkany has hinted on Twitter that she now had pancreatic cancer. The former elected LRs were serving their sentences, imposed in May 2020 in the first part of the case, under an electronic bracelet at their home in Giverny (Eure) until this measure was revoked in February 2022 due to numerous breaches.
Reduced penalties
“Ms. Balkany will have to respect certain obligations, mainly the fact of reimbursing the sums due to the tax authorities but also the fact of requesting prior authorization before any trip abroad or even of responding to summonses from the JAP and of remaining domiciled in Giverny”, he adds. “If Ms. Balkany demonstrates reasonable behavior, it is undoubtedly the last step in the execution of this sentence”, estimates the prosecutor of Évreux.
“This case is now over. Isabelle Balkany, who has not been remanded in custody, will not go to prison, ”rejoiced her lawyer, Me Pierre-Olivier Sur, interviewed by AFP.
Last January, the Paris Court of Appeal reduced the sentences of Patrick and Isabelle Balkany for laundering tax evasion and pronounced a confusion of the sentences with those imposed for tax evasion in the first part of the case. They were sentenced respectively to four and a half and three and a half years in prison, as well as a fine of 100,000 euros each and ten years of ineligibility. The Balkany couple was finally ordered to pay 400,000 euros in damages to the State, an amount significantly reduced compared to the million euros pronounced in May 2020.