Embroiled for more than sixteen months in a sextape blackmail case, the mayor of Saint-Étienne, Gaël Perdriau (ex-LR), was once again heard on Friday by the investigating judges in charge of the investigation in Lyon, AFP learned from those around him.
At the heart of the case, his possible role in the filming, use and financing via embezzlement of public funds of a compromising video intended to politically neutralize his former centrist first deputy, Gilles Artigues.
Gaël Perdriau has already been indicted for blackmail and placed under assisted witness status for “
embezzlement of public funds by a depositary of public authority
”, on April 6, in connection with this affair which has shaken his city since its revelation in August 2022. He was then placed under judicial supervision, with a bail of 60,000 euros.
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Arrived at court through a back door
Summoned again by the investigating judges, the 51-year-old ex-LR elected official joined his lawyers at the Lyon judicial court through a back door, a police source told AFP on site.
Excluded from the Les Républicains party, isolated, vilified by his opponents but also by some of his former political friends, Gaël Perdriau always refused to resign but had to reduce his representative functions and withdraw from the metropolis.
“
Despite the pressure I am under, the insults addressed to me and the disappointments I am experiencing, I will fight to demonstrate my innocence
,” he declared at the beginning of January after the announcement of the supplementary indictment of his former cabinet director, Pierre Gauttieri, for “
criminal association
”.
Without waiting for the outcome of his judicial summons, new calls for his immediate resignation arose after the announcement of the new indictment of the man who was his right-hand man at town hall and in the metropolis from 2014 until his dismissal for “
breach of trust
” at the end of 2022 in connection with the intimate video scandal.
Pierre Gauttieri had already been indicted for “blackmail” last April at the same time as Gaël Perdriau, a former municipal deputy Samy Kéfi-Jérôme and the latter's ex-companion, Gilles Rossary-Lenglet.
During his last hearing by the investigating judges, the former chief of staff, who had until then denied any responsibility in this affair, implicated the mayor by affirming that he had given the "
green light
" to the blackmail operation and had settled the financing, according to extracts from the minutes published by
Mediapart
.
Conspiracy"
The affair broke out at the end of August 2022 after Gilles Rossary-Lenglet revealed to
Mediapart
the existence of a video shot in January 2015 in which we see Gilles Artigues being massaged by an escort boy in a hotel room.
He claimed to have participated in this “
morality shaming
” at the request of the mayor and his entourage, and claimed to have been paid via fictitious services invoiced to two local associations subsidized by the town hall.
Over the months, investigators recovered several audio and video recordings supporting his confessions.
At the same time, hearings and searches accompanied by seizures of documents, computers and telephones, fueled the case.
The leaders of the two associations incriminated in his illicit retribution were indicted in December 2023 and January 2024 for “
complicity in embezzlement of public funds
” and “
breach of trust
”, with two of them being charged with an additional charge of “
document alteration
”.
At the end of September, Gilles Rossary-Lenglet also provided the courts and Mediapart with
a
new video proving his involvement in a blackmail project aimed at trapping the former mayor of Saint-Étienne, Michel Thiollière (UMP-Rad) by filming him with an underage prostitute.
This plan never came to fruition but the scope of the investigation was broadened to include the head of “
criminal association with a view to preparing the crime of blackmail
”.