After long months of legal battle, Patrick Balkany will be released from prison on Friday.
The Paris Court of Appeal announced on Thursday the conditional release of the former mayor of Levallois-Perret, sentenced to five years in prison for "
laundering tax fraud
".
He has been imprisoned since February at the Fleury-Mérogis remand center.
"This decision is irreproachable in law
", reacted his lawyers Mes Romain Dieudonné and Robin Binsard, before continuing: "
Nothing in this case justifies the continued detention of a 73-year-old man who has already served two thirds of his sentence."
Patrick Balkany will however be subject to a ban on leaving the national territory without the authorization of the judge and will be required to repay his debt linked to his financial embezzlement.
Read alsoPatrick Balkany's sentence adjustment again debated on June 30
The former baron of Hauts-de-Seine and his wife Isabelle Balkany were 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.
After having carried out five months of detention for tax evasion, then having been released under electronic bracelet for health reasons in February 2020, the former elected LR returned to prison last February due to numerous breaches of his obligations, according to justice .
His wife had been hospitalized after having, according to her husband, made a suicide attempt.
She returned to her home on June 4 pending a possible summons to court.
“Judicial harassment”
For his part, Patrick Balkany has been imprisoned since February 7 in Fleury-Mérogis in Essonne.
On May 30, the Evry sentence enforcement court granted him conditional release, without an electronic bracelet.
But the Evry prosecutor's office appealed, recalling in particular that 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 has the cost of the repair amounts to more than four million euros
”.
His lawyers then denounced a “
judicial harassment
”.
His defense assured AFP that confiscations had already taken place, even if the latter are not yet final.
Me Robin Binsard considered that the prosecution was showing “a
certain bad faith by not taking these confiscations into account
”.
In addition to this conviction for tax evasion, Patrick Balkany is targeted by other investigations.
He was indicted in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), in February 2021, for abuse of corporate assets, embezzlement of public funds and illegal taking of interests, suspected of having made available to his son-in-law buildings of offices, without payment of rent.
In another case, called "
drivers
", where he is accused of having used municipal agents as private drivers, his indictment for embezzlement of public funds was confirmed last December by the investigating chamber .
