Eight hours of interrogation, and an indictment. Heard at length by investigators this Friday, the mayor of Saint-Etienne Gaël Perdriau, ex-LR, was indicted for “participation in a criminal association with a view to committing blackmail,” his lawyers announced. Already indicted for blackmail last April, Gaël Perdriau “still contests all of the facts” with which he is accused, the lawyers said in a press release.
At the heart of the case, his possible role in the filming, use and financing, via embezzlement of public funds, of the famous sex tape filmed in January 2015. We see the former centrist deputy Gilles Artigues being massaged by a escort boy in a hotel room.
Implicated by his former chief of staff
The mayor of Saint-Etienne has already been indicted for blackmail and placed under assisted witness status for “misappropriation of public funds by a depositary of public authority” on April 6 in the context of this affair, which shakes his city since its revelation in August 2022. He was then placed under judicial supervision, with a bail of 60,000 euros.
His judicial review was not modified on Friday, specify his lawyers, Me Christophe Ingrain and Jean-Felix Luciani. Their press release announces their intention to make “in the coming days requests for confrontation which will demonstrate the veracity of (their) client’s statements”.
His indictment follows that of his former chief of staff for “criminal conspiracy” last December. His former right-hand man, who had until then denied any responsibility in this affair, implicated him during his last hearing. He thus affirmed 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.