Sophia and Cédric Martinez had planned a stay in Paris, from April 12 to 14. Two first class seats were reserved for the newlyweds on the TGV departing from Agde (Hérault), and a room awaited them at the Novotel Paris Centre-Bercy. A trip entirely supported by the Hérault-Médiranée urban community, chaired by the mayor of Agde, Gilles d’Ettore. The elected official had printed the train tickets, found in his car by investigators from the Montpellier regional judicial police service. No doubt he intended to deliver them in person to Sophia Martinez, the clairvoyant whose talent and kindness he never ceased to praise. One more gift: in February, the town hall had already paid for the medium’s birthday party in a seaside restaurant.
The stay was canceled. Sophia Martinez spent her fifth weekend in a row at the Nîmes remand center, in pre-trial detention since her indictment on March 14 for “concealed work, receiving stolen goods and fraud”. Cédric, her husband, also indicted for “concealment”, is under judicial supervision. And the 26,000 inhabitants of the seaside resort are deprived of their mayor: indicted for “illegal taking of interests by a person holding public authority and passive corruption”, for having offered gifts and advantages for four years to Sophia Martinez, Gilles d’Ettore, also in detention provisionally, saw his request for release under judicial supervision refused on April 10.
“At the market, we were still joking about it this morning: “Did you buy oranges for Gilles?” » On the sunny terrace of a café, facing the waters of the Hérault, Jean-Claude Coubau prefers to have fun with the situation. The president of the Agathé association, which fights to enforce the “coastal” law in the commune, has been fighting against the mayor of Agde for two decades. If he willingly denounces his “gangster methods” and its management “worthy of a principality”he – like the entire city – was taken aback when he learned the reason for the indictment of Gilles d’Ettore.
For a month, Agde has lived to the rhythm of rumors and new indictments. “If the affair makes you smile, it also causes real suffering, deplores Thierry Nadal, opposition municipal councilor. The city is groggy, everyone is impacted. » Starting with the local economic fabric: Friday April 12, the boss of the hypermarket was indicted, a week after that of a subsidiary of the construction group Eiffage. They are suspected of having, at the request of the mayor, financed work at the home of Sophia Martinez.
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