After the opening at the beginning of the month of a judicial investigation for invasion of privacy and aggravated blackmail in particular, the mayor of Saint-Étienne is heard on September 13 in Lyon. A hearing at the request of Gaël Perdriau who intervenes after the publication of overwhelming audio recordings for him and his chief of staff, on the Médiapart site this Tuesday morning.
It’s a sordid, years-old sex-video blackmail affair that’s accelerating today. At the heart of the case, a video recorded in 2014 where the former first deputy mayor of Saint-Étienne and former deputy Gilles Artigues is filmed without his knowledge with an escort in a hotel room in Paris.
An appointment arranged by a deputy mayor of Saint-Étienne, according to the results of the survey conducted by Médiapart. With one objective: to put pressure on Gilles Artigues to control him politically and prevent him from dissenting against the mayor.
Unambiguous broadcast threats
At the end of August, Gilles Artigues filed a complaint and at the beginning of September, the Lyon prosecutor’s office opened a judicial investigation for invasion of privacy, aggravated blackmail, embezzlement of public property, breach of trust and concealment in particular. The town hall of Saint-Étienne was raided last week.
And today the case is bouncing back with the publication of these audio recordings made by Gilles Artigues of conversations he had in 2017 and 2018 with Mayor Gaël Perdriau and his chief of staff Pierre Gautieri. The threats of dissemination of the images are unambiguous.
Last week, Gaël Perdriau denounced despicable accusations. Today his party, the Republicans, did not wait for the result of the investigation to launch an exclusion procedure against him.