The Nanterre Criminal Court (Hauts-de-Seine) has decided to release Patrick and Isabelle Balkany in the case of the sexual photomontage they had broadcast.
Patrick and Isabelle Balkany won their case: the spouses were released on Tuesday by the Nanterre criminal court, where they had been tried two months ago for the dissemination of photomontages of a sexual nature by the first deputy of the town hall of Levallois – Perret.
The Balkany were accused of having broadcast to relatives pornographic images of David-Xavier Weiss, the current first deputy mayor of Levallois, a former close friend of the couple, who became a political adversary.
However, as the public prosecutor admitted during the hearing, the experts could not prove with certainty that these images were indeed a montage.
“The proof that there was a photomontage is not sufficiently demonstrated”, explained the president of the 14th chamber of the court to justify the release.
“This decision restores the honor of our customers who have been unjustly smeared,” reacted to the press Me Robin Binsard, who represents Patrick and Isabelle Balkany with Me Romain Dieudonné.
“It is a disavowal for the public prosecutor who prosecuted the Balkany spouses in this case against all common sense, when everything showed that no offense could be attributed to them”, he added.
The complaint was withdrawn
During the hearing in April, the prosecution had requested a fine of 10,000 euros against the former mayor of Levallois (between 1983 and 1995 then 2001-2020) and against his wife, who was also his first assistant.
Xavier Weiss had withdrawn his complaint, initially filed for disclosure of a document of a sexual nature, and his civil party application, before the hearing.
The confusion even extended to the procedure because, if the prosecution had decided to refer the spouses to court for the publication of a photomontage, the summons received by Patrick Balkany mentioned another qualification: “invasion of the privacy of ‘other’.
Since their departure from the town hall of Levallois in 2020, the Balkany have multiplied the criticisms – sometimes bitter – on social networks against the new municipal team.
Isabelle Balkany, 75, is to be tried in July 2024 for defamatory remarks made on Facebook against mayor Agnès Pottier-Dumas. Patrick Balkany, 74, is currently being prosecuted in two other cases in Nanterre.
Already indicted for “embezzlement of public property or funds by a person holding public authority”, he is being prosecuted in another case for “misuse of corporate assets” and “illegal taking of interests”.
Sentenced for laundering tax evasion, the Balkany couple was found guilty of having concealed between 2007 and 2014 some 13 million euros in tax assets. Patrick Balkany spent several months in detention in connection with this case.
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