The broadcast of these videos of a sexual nature ended the political career of Benjamin Griveaux. Almost four years later, Russian artist Piotr Pavlenski was sentenced this Wednesday to six months in prison under an electronic bracelet. His partner Alexandra de Taddeo was also found guilty of violating the privacy of the former government spokesperson and sentenced to six months’ suspended imprisonment.
The two defendants, aged 39 and 32, will also have to jointly pay 15,000 euros in damages to the former MP, as well as 5,000 euros in legal fees. “My artwork ‘Pornopolitics’ is finished, because the judge’s sentence is the last point in my artwork, it’s always like that. That’s why I’m not going to appeal,” Pyotr Pavlenski said as he left the courtroom.
“Artistic fantasies”
Alexandra de Taddeo spoke of a “disappointing decision, because[elle] waited [t] May France be a little more grateful to Piotr and his artistic approach.” She has not indicated whether she will appeal. For the former politician’s lawyer, Me Richard Malka, “justice was done today to Benjamin Griveaux”, even if “the wrongs that were caused to him will never be repaired”.
“The artistic rantings of one and the denials of the other were rejected by the court and what this decision says is that the violation of our private lives is a serious offense committed by delinquents” , he said. Then LREM candidate (today Renaissance) for Paris City Hall, Benjamin Griveaux abandoned the municipal campaign on February 14, 2020, denouncing “despicable attacks involving [sa] private life “.
A “voyeuristic shipwreck”
Less than 48 hours earlier, videos of a man masturbating had been published on a site called “Pornopolitics”, the link to which was relayed on social networks. These videos were sent by Benjamin Griveaux, 45, to Alexandra de Taddeo during a short relationship, between May and August 2018. They were edited with screenshots of messages exchanged between them .
This resignation of a heavyweight of the majority had caused a political scandal: left and right had unanimously criticized a “voyeuristic shipwreck” and a “threat to democracy”. Piotr Pavlenski, known for extreme performances in Russia and a refugee in France since 2017, immediately claimed this action as an event of “political art”, aimed at denouncing the “disgusting hypocrisy” of a man who “used his family by presenting himself as an icon for all the fathers and husbands of Paris.”
The trial is “not a spectacle”
Following a judicial investigation, the two defendants were sent back to court and the trial was held on June 28 in the absence of the civil party, who abandoned the policy. Defendants arriving late, applause from the public, suspensions of the hearing, actors called as witnesses to declaim extracts from Molière’s “Tartuffe”… “It is not a question of a show, but of a trial”, had said, annoyed, the president of the court.
The court followed the requisitions of the prosecution which had considered that “any action cannot be committed in the name of freedom of expression”. Piotr Pavlenski was sentenced in 2019 to three years in prison, including one year for setting fire to the facade of a branch of the Banque de France on Place de la Bastille. At the time, he also spoke of an artistic “event” aimed at denouncing, according to him, a historical misinterpretation: the presence of the Bank of France in a high place of the French Revolution.