Court rules French mayor too ill to stay in jail

PARIS: The mayor of a wealthy Paris suburb jailed for tax fraud and money laundering had his sentence converted to house arrest Wednesday by an appeals court on health grounds. Patrick Balkany, 71, had been in jail since September 13 last year, after he and his wife Isabelle were found guilty of fraud for hiding millions of euros´ worth of assets from the taxman. He was sentenced to four years in jail, and his wife to three years, although her incarceration was not carried out in light of a recent suicide attempt. The sentence banned both of them from holding public office for a decade. When in October the power couple was convicted of money laundering in a second trial, observers heralded the rulings as proof that French courts can hold the powerful to account. The mayor was convicted to five years´ imprisonment and his wife to four.