The first day of the Balkany trial was marked by a legal battle between the two sides. After a request for dismissal dismissed, Patrick Balkany's defense asked the President of the Court to dismiss himself by questioning his "objective impartiality".
It is a trial that is struggling to open so much tension is palpable. The first day of the Balkany trial was marked this Monday by lively exchanges between the various parties, and this from the first minutes. If the public is accustomed to the bloodshed of Patrick Balkany, judged for "tax evasion " and "laundering of tax fraud ", before the Court, it is his lawyer who is mounted in the ring, judicial. "Patrick Balkany, this is not a dog! ", "there is such a willingness to put Patrick Balkany in the hole?", questioned me Eric Dupond-Moretti before questioning "the objective impartiality" of the President of the Court, weighing a thick silence on the fully-full courtroom. A trial that is still pending.
Balkany, "not serene"
Before even approaching the merits of this case, which concerns 13 million euros that would have been concealed by the Balkany couple, the defense of the Mayor of Levallois-Perret, smiling but sometimes tense, asked the President of the Court, Benjamin Blanchet, to to be replaced. "On September 15, 2017, you made a decision that allows me to discuss your impartiality," he brutally launches to the magistrate. And to add: "If you do not deport, I will seize the first President of a challenge application. "
To support this request, the Parisian tenor recalls that judge Blanchet has already had to deal with a case of tax evasion and laundering of tax evasion concerning "a southern Member of Parliament". In this decision "which establishes a penalty floor ", "you indicated that the fight against tax evasion is an issue of Government policy ", launches me Dupond-Moretti then qualifying the magistrate of "armed arm of the Government ", believing that this the latter could be questioned in his impartiality. The lawyer also came back on that day when the judge had held "militant terms" when questioned about the Fillon case on BFMTV.
"Patrick Balkany, who is a member of Parliament, who is judged for the same facts, is not very serene, excuse me for telling you," insisted Dupond-Moretti, in front of a Patrick Balkany muttering repeatedly about inaudible words.
Deportation request rejected
The Vice-Prosecutor representing the national prosecutor's Office in Paris strongly objected to this request, referring to a "lapalissade " of the defence which reports a case "which has nothing to do". On the side of the lawyer of the State, civil party, in this case, the finding is the same. "This refers to a case that has absolutely nothing to do with the case that we are dealing with today," says Mr. Xavier Normand-Bodard. "I do not mean to deport me", then slice, in a white voice, the President of the Court, obliged, however, to suspend the hearing once again, while Mr. Dupond-Moretti puts his threat to execution: he will file a request for disqualification from the first President of the Paris Court of appeal.
This tense atmosphere is only the conclusion of a legal battle which had begun a few hours before, with the request for referral pleaded by the lawyer of Isabelle Balkany. At the opening of the trial, Mr. Pierre-Olivier sur, on the field of emotion, referred to the State of the health of Isabelle Balkany, absent, still hospitalized in a psychiatric unit after her attempted suicide on May 1st. "Unfortunately, and until this morning we were in doubt and hope she could come," said the lawyer.
Isabelle Balkany "not able" to come to his trial
The medical certificate provided to the Court States that Isabelle Balkany cannot "walk alone " and suffers "from partial paralysis on the right side". In a short letter written by the pre-coming, and read by her lawyer in a religious silence, she explains not to feel able to come to her trial. She speaks of an "unbearable emotional shock ", a "lynching on networks ". His lawyer wants proof of the 1,400 mails and 900 SMS that his client received the day after her attempted suicide. Messages for some hateful or anti-Semitic.
"You are in the same vein as the Rothschilds, you have the same blood, dirty Jew ", "thief, crook, pity you have failed ", "I hope she is dead ", reads the lawyer laconically. "I don't have an example of such a strong media lynching in a criminal financial case," insists the former President of Paris. If the dismissal were dismissed, "I would agree to be judged in my absence," said Isabelle Balkany, through her lawyer.
Mr. Duncan-Moretti also supported this request for a referral, believing that Patrick Balkany, 71 years old, needed to be with his wife. "This is not a dog, Mr. Balkany. I'm not asking for the moon. In these circumstances it is difficult. Even for Patrick Balkany. To all these arguments, the State lawyer questioned the real ambitions of the defense. "It is clear that Mr. and Mrs. Balkany do not want to be judged promptly," mocked me Normand-Bodard. At that request, the President of the Court also objected to an end of non-receipt.
The continuation of this trial is now based on the decision of the first President of the Court of appeal of Paris, who will have to rule on the application for disqualification of the President of the Court filed by Patrick Balkany's lawyer. The magistrate has the choice, between letting the debates continue until they decide, or suspend them. The defence, she, did not say her last word. Mr. Dupond-Moretti will also file an application for a nullity of the order and the citation for reference. The next six weeks during which the trial was scheduled to remain uncertain.
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