INTERVIEW
Isabelle Balkany is "at the height of emotion". This Friday her husband Patrick Balkany was sentenced to 4 years in prison with immediate imprisonment as part of their trial for tax evasion. "She received in full heart the image of the departure of her husband for the prison," said his lawyer, Pierre-Olivier Sur, at the microphone of Nathalie Lévy. Isabelle Balkany was sentenced to 3 years in prison without a deposit warrant, and so this afternoon, free, the road to the town hall of Levallois-Perret.
"She has appealed, and can therefore continue to exercise its political mandate.It remains very combative," said the lawyer on Europe 1. Earlier in the afternoon, Isabelle Balkany had assured BFM TV that she did not understand that her husband was going to prison. A decision that his lawyer also judges "all the harder it is unfair": "The court said and ruled that there was no misappropriated public money and acknowledged that it was not at this stage of the proceedings, to determine the tax base evaded, and I would like to make it clear that there is a hiatus in the court decision rendered. "
"An image given to the media"
For Pierre-Olivier Sur, the conviction of Patrick Balkany is disproportionate to the facts that were attributed to him after his trial. "It may respond to a public opinion, but it does not answer the case law we have on the tax offense." On Friday, Patrick Balakny came out of the Criminal Court handcuffs and was taken to the prison of Health. "This is an image that we wanted to give to the media, that of a politician who goes to prison," said the lawyer of the first deputy mayor of Levallois-Perret.
Duty of exemplarity
Asked about the exemplary duty of elected officials, Pierre-Olivier Sur prefers to mention that of justice. "The exemplarity must be exemplary justice, which follows a number of case law and which reserves the most serious detention.The most serious is the embezzlement of public funds.The judges here said that there was no misappropriation of public funds, which is why I consider this decision worthy of attack. "