The former first assistant of Levallois-Perret will benefit from March 6 from a conditional release measure, thanks to a decision by the Evreux prosecution.
Isabelle Balkany, former first assistant of Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine) sentenced to a prison term for tax evasion with her husband Patrick Balkany, will benefit from a conditional release from March 6, learned the AFP with the Evreux prosecutor’s office.
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May 2020 in the first part of the case, under an electronic bracelet at their home in Giverny (Eure) until this measure was revoked in February 2022 due to numerous breaches.
If Patrick Balkany was reincarcerated from February to August 2022, his wife, who was 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 hinted on Twitter that she was now suffering from pancreatic cancer.
According to the public prosecutor of Evreux, Rémi Coutin, Isabelle Balkany’s lawyer had seized the sentence enforcement judge (JAP) of Evreux to ask “a suspension of sentence for medical reasons”. The judge denied that request this week “but granted parole to Ms. Balkany from March 6, a position in line with the requisitions of the prosecution”underlines Rémi Coutin.
“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 seeking prior authorization before any trip abroad or even of responding to summonses from the JAP [juge d’application des peines, ndlr] and to remain domiciled in Giverny”, says the prosecutor. He adds that “If Mrs. Balkany shows reasonable behavior, this is undoubtedly the last step in the execution of this sentence”.
Sentence relief
The latter’s lawyer, Me Pierre-Olivier Sur, for his part, welcomed this news. “This case is now over. Isabelle Balkany, who has not been remanded in custody, will not go to prison”, did he declare. 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. Patrick Balkany, 74, is also being sued in two other cases in Nanterre aimed at suspicion of “embezzlement of public funds” and “abuse of corporate assets”.
