Pwill atrick Balkany be released from prison in the next few hours? Incarcerated since February at the Fleury-Merogis detention center, in Essonne, the former elected LR will find out on Monday, May 30 if the Evry sentencing court gives the green light to his release on parole or decides to keep him in detention.
During the hearing that took place behind closed doors in the prison on May 19, the prosecutor’s office opposed this release, considering that Patrick Balkany “still manifests his opposition to the principle of his conviction, despite its definitive nature, which does not bode well for compliance with the requested sentence adjustment measure”.
According to the prosecutor’s office, Patrick Balkany “justifies, at most, only the payment of a total sum of about 7,000 euros, since February 2022, while the tax debt for which he is responsible for the repair amounts to more than four million euros”. The 73-year-old was taken into custody on February 7. After spending five months in detention for tax fraud, and then being released on an electronic wristband for health reasons, he had returned to prison due to numerous breaches of his obligations, according to the justice.
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“Enjoying the time he has left with his family”
The electronic bracelet placement of his wife Isabelle, still hospitalized since her suicide attempt in February, had also been revoked. The Balkany spouses had been found guilty of not paying wealth tax between 2010 and 2015 and of paying a grossly undervalued income tax between 2009 and 2014, for an estimated total of 4 million euros in evaded sums.
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A few weeks after his incarceration, the former mayor of Levallois-Perret, in the Hauts-de-Seine, filed a petition for parole through his lawyers in early April. On this request, the penitentiary integration and probation service (Spip) issued an unfavorable opinion, while the prison administration gave a favorable opinion to his sentence adjustment.
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Contacted by Agence France Presse, his lawyers, Romain Dieudonné and Robin Binsard, declined to comment before Monday’s ruling. “Our client has already executed twenty months under nut. He is 73 years old and wants to enjoy the time he has left with his family,” he said at the time of filing the petition. The end of Patrick Balkany’s sentence is set for April 21, 2023.
