Sentenced for tax evasion, the Balkany spouses had been placed under house arrest, under electronic surveillance, because of their state of health.
Sentenced for “massive tax evasion”, Patrick and Isabelle Balkany will they end up in prison after breaches under electronic bracelets? The Rouen Court of Appeal decides on Thursday February 3 the fate of the former LR mayor of Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine) and his wife.
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On January 24, the general prosecutor’s office in Rouen had “required confirmation” of the revocation on December 17, by the court of application of sentences (TAP) of Évreux, of their placement under electronic bracelets, indicated Tuesday a judicial source to AFP. This decision followed a hundred“incidents” having rung their bracelets 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. 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.
“A bit of casualness”
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 transmitted immediately or not” by the public prosecutor’s office to the public prosecutor’s office of Évreux which will have to carry out 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.
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 Mediapart, quoting Pierre-Olivier Sur, Isabelle Balkany’s lawyer, the decision to revoke the TAP follows “a hundred ringing incidents, and a bit of flippancy.” “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”, assured Me Sur. “At the time of the hearing (in Evreux, Editor’s note), the device has finally been settled so that there are no more incidents». Contacted by AFP, one of the lawyers for the spouses, Me Romain Dieudonné, indicated that the decision should be sent to them at the beginning of the afternoon.
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Patrick Balkany, 73, was previously imprisoned on September 13, 2019 after being sentenced for a “massive tax evasion” to four years in prison. 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 tax evasion procedure 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.
SEE ALSO – Release of Balkany: “We had to let him go out to get treatment”, says his lawyer (02/12/2020)