The placement under electronic bracelet of the former mayor LR of Levallois-Perret, in the Hauts-de-Seine, and his wife will be revoked after several breaches, paving the way for their incarceration, ruled the Court of Appeal of Rouen, Thursday February 3.
Patrick Balkany’s lawyer, Romain Dieudonné, denounced in a press release a decision “disturbing in law and in fact” because of his client’s state of health. Questioned on BMF-TV, Mr. Balkany denounced a “completely unfair decision”. He also claimed that his wife had made a new suicide attempt on Thursday after swallowing a large quantity of drugs. Isabelle Balkany, 74, was hospitalized in Evreux, according to her husband.
“We knew that Isabelle Balkany was exhausted. His action does not surprise me. It’s not suicide blackmail. It is the expression of a cry for help, which in legal terms raises questions about the meaning, the proportionality and even the humanity of incarceration at this stage.said Pierre-Olivier Sur, Mr.me Balkany. “I just want to sleep, SLEEP”wrote on Twitter Mme Balkany:
I just want to sleep, SLEEP… Exhausted by age, mine, hatred, others, anguish for the man of my life… https://t.co/peaUt9KLti
Will the couple sleep in prison on Thursday evening? “It all depends on whether the documents are sent immediately or not” by the public prosecutor’s office to the Evreux public prosecutor’s office which will have to implement the decision, explained a judicial source. The general prosecutor’s office, which could communicate at the end of the day, can decide to wait for the time limit for appeal in cassation (five days). A possible appeal would not allow the couple to escape prison.
A hundred “incidents”
TAP’s decision to revoke the electronic bracelet in December followed “a hundred ringing incidents and a bit of flippancy”according to Pierre-Olivier Sur at Mediapart. “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”explained M.and On.
The Balkany spouses were in Giverny on Thursday afternoon, according to their lawyers. 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.
“There were other solutions for a 73-year-old litigant who has already lost everything in recent years and who cannot materially cope with what justice is asking of him today.his lawyer was indignant. I will soon be filing a new request for sentence adjustment and will follow the evolution of his state of health day after day. » M’s lawyerme Balkany for his part denounced a “new illustration of a symbolic justice”.
Patrick Balkany already imprisoned at the end of 2019
Mr. Balkany was previously imprisoned on September 13, 2019, after being sentenced for a “massive tax evasion”, to four years in prison. very thin, he was released on February 12, 2020 for health reasons, with a light judicial review, after five months spent between the Parisian prison of Health and the hospital. In April 2021, he was also hospitalized for five days for pulmonary edema and heart failure.
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 May 2019.
The couple’s conviction for tax evasion was confirmed on March 4, 2020 by the Paris Court of Appeal, accompanied by a three-year prison sentence. Following this conviction on appeal, the two were removed from their elective offices. They were then respectively mayor and first deputy of Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine). It was this first part of a vast tax evasion procedure which had resulted in their placement under electronic bracelet at the beginning of 2021.
At the same time, the couple was also sentenced at the end of 2019 for having hidden 13 million euros in assets from the tax authorities between 2007 and 2014. The Paris Court of Appeal must re-examine the quantum of the sentences on February 9, but the dismissal of this trial is “likely”according to a source familiar with the matter.