The Rouen Court of Appeal (Seine-Maritime) revoked, Thursday, February 3, the placement under electronic bracelet of Isabelle and Patrick Balkany. This decision, which opens the way to their incarceration, confirms that of the Evreux Sentence Enforcement Court, delivered in mid-December. Their sentence adjustment is revoked because of repeated breaches of their house arrest at the Moulin de Cossy, their mansion in Giverny (Eure).
The public prosecutor’s office can now decide to wait for the period of appeal in cassation (five days) to pronounce the imprisonment of the Balkanys. A possible appeal by the couple would not allow him to escape prison. The court can also decide to put them back under an electronic bracelet.
Patrick Balkany’s lawyer, Romain Dieudonné, denounced in a press release a decision “disturbing in law and in fact” because of his client’s state of health. The former mayor of Levallois, interviewed on BFMTV, also confirmed that his wife had been taken to hospital after the announcement of the decision. She had posted an equivocal message on Twitter a few minutes before, reminiscent of the one she posted on Facebook before her suicide attempt in early May 2019, before the first trial.
I just want to sleep, SLEEP…
Exhausted by age, mine, hatred, others, anxiety for the man of my life, the wound, incurable, of the “scrub” of what I could do positive…
Thank you to those who made me happy to love me… and to my 4-legged loves! pic.twitter.com/37PC3FpsXV— Isabelle Balkany (@ibalkany) February 3, 2022
Patrick Balkany has already been imprisoned in September 2019 after his conviction for tax evasion, but he was released after five months under judicial supervision for health reasons. Isabelle Balkany was sentenced to three years in prison without a warrant. On May 27, 2020, the Balkany spouses were sentenced on appeal to five and four years in prison respectively, without immediate imprisonment, for “aggravated money laundering of tax evasion” and “illegal taking of interest”. They had been placed under an electronic bracelet in early 2021.