The parole of Patrick Balkany suspended after an appeal from the prosecution

Patrick Balkany remains in pre-trial detention at Fleury-Merogis prison (Essonne). The prosecution of Evry appealed, Monday, May 30, the conditional release of the former mayor LR of Levallois-Perret, pronounced by the sentence enforcement court a few hours earlier. “The appeal of the prosecution is suspensive until the sentencing chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal rules, within the maximum period of two months”said the prosecutor of Evry Caroline Nisand in a press release.

The Evry sentence enforcement court had granted Patrick Balkany, on Monday afternoon, conditional release without an electronic bracelet. “He clearly became aware of his shortcomings during the previous sentence adjustment measure, shortcomings sanctioned by a new incarceration which was difficult to bear”, according to the court decision seen by AFP. The former deputy was to leave Fleury-Merogis prison (Essonne) on Wednesday, according to his lawyers Robin Bindard and Romain Dieudonné.

The latter castigated the decision of the Evry prosecution. “There is no justification for the continued detention of a 73-year-old man who has served two-thirds of his sentence”, they denounce in a press release that franceinfo was able to obtain. According to the lawyers, this appeal “is pure and simple judicial harassment against Mr. Balkany, but also against any form of logic, reason and law”.

Patrick Balkany was imprisoned on Monday 7 February. After spending five months in detention for tax evasion and then being released on electronic bracelet for health reasons, he was returned to jail because of numerous breaches of its obligations, according to justice.

With his wife, Isabelle Balkany, they must be retried in October in the case of laundering tax fraud. Already convicted of this offence, thehe only issue of this deadline will be the quantum of their sentences, after a decision of the Court of Cassation.