One of the main Parisian paparazzi, Sébastien Valiela, was indicted in the investigation into the photos of the arrest in February 2020 of Piotr Pavlenski, the Russian artist at the heart of the Griveaux affair, a source said. judicial Saturday.
Read also: Griveaux case: Pavlenski and Taddeo request the nullity of their arrest
According to this judicial source, confirming information from Mediapart, Sebastien Valiela, photographer who works for the BestImage agency of “
Mimi
” Marchand, was “
notably
” indicted on Friday for “
concealing the violation of professional secrecy
”, and placed under judicial review.
This wording indicates that Sébastien Valiela has possibly been indicted for other offenses.
In this case, two police officers were indicted on September 10, 2020 for "
violation of professional secrecy
".
A third was also according to Mediapart, for this same offense, but also for "
passive corruption
".
Piotr Pavlenski and his companion Alexandra de Taddeo were arrested on February 15 in the west of Paris, in front of the objective of Sebastien Valiela, who had been informed of the date and place of the operation.
This arrest took place two days after the broadcast, claimed by Pavlenski, of videos of a sexual nature by Benjamin Griveaux, then LREM candidate for mayor of Paris, precipitating his withdrawal from the municipal battle on February 14, 2020.
Corruption, police officers involved ... it looks like a real mafia system
Me Noémie Saidi-Cottier, lawyer for Ms. Taddeo
Photos and a video showing Piotr Pavlenski lying face down on the ground with his hands shackled by handcuffs, had been released the following week by Paris Match. "
Corruption, police officers involved ... it looks like a real mafia system
," responded Me Noémie Saidi-Cottier, lawyer for Ms. Taddeo, denouncing that he "
refused
" to be a civil party in this case.
Valiela is known to have taken the photos of Mazarine Pingeot with his father François Mitterrand, published in Paris Match in 1994; he also took the stolen photos published in January 2014 by Closer of François Hollande and Julie Gayet. More recently, he is the author of the photo and video report in Beirut broadcast in November in which the intermediary Ziad Takieddine withdrew his accusations against Nicolas Sarkozy concerning Libyan funding for his 2017 presidential campaign.
The judges are investigating a possible "
witness tampering
", and Mimi Marchand and four other people were indicted in early June. Since Friday evening, the "
papess
" of the French people press has been imprisoned in this case. Sebastien Valiela was heard Tuesday as a "
free suspect
" in this investigation.