The ex-LR mayor of Saint-Etienne Gaël Perdriau, mired in a case of political sextape blackmail which has shaken his city since September 2022, was brought to the Lyon courthouse on Thursday morning, the prosecution announced in a press release. The 50-year-old elected official was placed in police custody on Tuesday afternoon at the same time as his former chief of staff Pierre Gauttieri, his former deputy Samy Kéfi-Jérôme and the latter’s ex-companion Gilles Rossary-Lenglet, behind the case revealed by Mediapart, according to information obtained by AFP.
“The four people placed in police custody in the context of the so-called intimate video blackmail case of Saint-Etienne are brought today before the investigating magistrates in charge of this judicial investigation”, indicates the Lyon prosecutor’s office. The mayor and president of the metropolis of Saint-Etienne therefore spent forty hours in the premises of the judicial police of Lyon, which has been investigating the scandal for seven months.
Gaël Perdriau proclaims his innocence and will not resign
Gaël Perdriau, elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2020, has been at the heart of this investigation since September into the filming and possible use for political purposes of a sexual video in which we can see his former centrist first deputy. and political rival Gilles Artigues being massaged by a man in a hotel room, late 2014.
The judicial investigation for “invasion of privacy, aggravated blackmail, embezzlement of public property by a person in charge of a public function, breach of trust and concealment of these offenses” was entrusted to three judges of instruction.
Namely accused by Gilles Artigues, placed in police custody in mid-September 2022, quoted in damning audio recordings, the 50-year-old elected official has always proclaimed his innocence and repeated several times that he would not resign, even in the event of a in examination.