Patrick Balkany, who hoped to be able to get out of prison, saw the justice once again refuse his request for parole. He will remain incarcerated in the Fleury-Mérogis remand center (Essonne) at least until August 4. The Paris Court of Appeal will hold a new hearing and decide on the conditional release of the former city councilor of Levallois-Perret, his placement under an electronic bracelet or his continued detention.
During this hearing, which was held for nearly two hours behind closed doors before the sentencing chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal, the public prosecutor’s office opposed his conditional release, specified the judicial source. Patrick Balkany was present by videoconference from the Fleury-Mérogis remand center, according to his lawyers, Robin Binsard and Romain Dieudonné.
On May 30, the Evry prosecutor’s office appealed his conditional release without an electronic bracelet, decided by the Evry sentence enforcement court, implying the continued detention of the former elected official. The Evry prosecutor’s office had estimated that Patrick Balkany “always expressed his opposition to the principle of his conviction, despite its final nature, which bodes poorly for compliance with the requested sentence adjustment measure”.
Patrick Balkany only reimbursed 7,000 euros… out of 4 million
According to the prosecutor of Évry, the former elected LR “only justifies, at most, the payment of a total sum of around 7,000 euros since February 2022, while the tax debt for which he is responsible for repairing s amounts to more than 4 million euros”.
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After having spent five months in detention for tax evasion, then having been released under an electronic bracelet for health reasons, the former elected official returned to prison due to numerous breaches of his obligations, according to justice. The placement under electronic bracelet of his wife Isabelle was also revoked. She left the hospital in early June and lives at her home in Giverny (Eure) while awaiting a possible summons to court.
The Balkany spouses had been found guilty of not having paid wealth tax between 2010 and 2015 and of having paid a grossly undervalued income tax between 2009 and 2014, for an estimated total of 4 million euros. euros of sums evaded. The end of Patrick Balkany’s sentence is set for April 21, 2023. “The Évry prosecution would never have appealed against another detainee, it is judicial harassment against Patrick Balkany, against any form of logic, reason and of law “, again commented on Thursday the lawyers of Patrick Balkany.