How did Piotr Pavlenski obtain the intimate images of Benjamin Griveaux at the origin of the withdrawal of his candidacy for mayor of Paris? In police custody, Alexandra de Taddeo, the companion of the Russian artist, said she had nothing to do with their posting online, a fact that she would only have discovered afterwards. A version of the facts also advanced by Pavlenski.
"I stole this video," the Russian artist told CNN, adding that her partner "did not know that I had found and recovered it." Pavlenski would have stumbled upon these images last November but he explains "having only shown what he had done" to the young woman of 29 years only after having published them on the "Pornopolitics" site.
Who is Piotr Pavlenski, the man who released the videos?
Piotr Pavlenski and Alexandra de Taddeo were both indicted on Tuesday for "invasion of privacy" and "distribution without the consent of the person of a recording of words or images of a sexual nature and obtained with her consent or by herself ”.
"This is just the start for me"
Pavlenski did not elaborate on how he got hold of the video. Faced with the investigators, Alexandra de Taddeo, who had a relationship with Benjamin Griveaux when he was still a government spokesperson, came to the conclusion that he had the password for the laptop where the images were stored and that he made a transfer without his knowledge. After the video was broadcast, the student also reformatted her computer equipment and got rid of a USB key.
On the American channel, Pavlenski reiterated that putting Griveaux's video online had nothing to do with personal revenge, but that it was "political art". "Pleased" with the reactions aroused by the case, the Russian said that "this is only the beginning for him", while refusing to give further details.
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As for the possible loss of his political refugee status, Pavlenski "doesn't even think about it". “There has always been something in my life that was supposed to scare me. I'm used to it, ”he added. Although mentioned by the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner, the hypothesis is not anyway on the agenda taking into account the facts which are reproached to him.
