The Paris Court of Appeal will issue its decision on April 22 in the money laundering file aggravated by tax fraud targeting Patrick and Isabelle Balkany, city councilors of Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine).
The public prosecutor's office requested firm prison terms and ten years of ineligibility against the couple, but waived the right to request the immediate imprisonment of the mayor, for medical reasons. The Balkanys are also awaiting a decision on March 4 from this same court in the tax fraud section of this case.
A new release request
In the wake of the appeal trial, the court must consider Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. a new request for release of Patrick Balkany, 71, imprisoned since his first conviction for tax evasion on September 13 and since regularly hospitalized.
This emergency is motivated by the state of health of the former baron of Hauts-de-Seine, who suffers from a serious digestive pathology and who lost "almost 30 kg in five months" according to his family.
If the court granted the defense requests, Patrick Balkany could be released from prison on Wednesday evening.
"Manifest deterioration of general condition" and "marked depressive state"
A medical assessment carried out on February 5 in the visiting room of the Parisian remand center for Health notes a "manifest deterioration in the general condition" of the elected representative, who presents a "marked depressive state": this "does not seem compatible with ordinary detention. "
Very weak, Patrick Balkany had only attended the first day of his trial on appeal for fraud and was absent during the appeal hearing devoted to money laundering.
"I would have preferred that my client still weighed 100 kg, that he was in the box," pleaded his lawyer Romain Dieudonné on Wednesday. He called on the court to make a decision "adapted" to the state of health of a man "already kneeling on the ground" and who "will not stand for re-election in March".
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- Patrick balkany
- Isabelle Balkany
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