Isabelle Balkany, prosecuted for defamation and insults against the new mayor of Levallois, is acquitted on a procedural point

Among other things, she accused the municipal team of “characterized harassment” within the town hall and of “dozing off” in the face of drug trafficking.

Victory on form. Isabelle Balkany, wife of the former mayor of Levallois (Hauts-de-Seine) Patrick Balkany, who was tried in July for defamation and insults towards her husband’s successor, was acquitted by the Nanterre criminal court on Tuesday, September 3.

The reason for this decision was a procedural error: the complaint had been filed in the name of the town hall and not in that of the mayor, Agnès Pottier-Dumas, which “render the action brought inadmissible”the court justified. “This decision is a real procedural snub for the City Hall, and a legal victory for Isabelle Balkany as well as for freedom of expression”Isabelle Balkany’s counsel told AFP. “The city takes note of the court’s decision”said Agnès Pottier-Dumas’ lawyer.

In October 2021 on her Facebook account, Isabelle Balkany accused the municipal team of “to snooze” in the face of drug trafficking, denounced by “characterized harassment” within the town hall, suggested that the municipality knowingly left the lighting in the town hall out of order and claims that elected officials from Levallois had taken a pleasure trip at taxpayers’ expense. The former first deputy mayor of Levallois, aged 76, was also prosecuted for having described municipal elected officials as “crazy people” [sic] incompetent and all in love with themselves”. Words that “bitterness and personal animosity ooze out”the mayor’s lawyer said during the hearing.

Convicted in 2020 for laundering tax fraud, the Balkany couple were found guilty of having concealed, between 2007 and 2014, some 13 million euros of assets from the tax authorities. Isabelle Balkany was sentenced in this case to three years in prison, but was not incarcerated, due to her state of health. Patrick Balkany spent several months in detention in connection with this case.