The revelations of the online information site Médiapart take on another dimension: Maître Buffard, the lawyer for Gilles Artigues, former first deputy to the City of Saint-Etienne will file a complaint this Monday morning. A decision which comes three days after the revelations on an erotic video which would have been filmed without the knowledge of Gilles Artigues by the entourage close to the mayor of Saint-Etienne, Gaël Perdriau. Images that would have had the sole purpose of bringing down Gilles Artigues politically.
Maître Buffard, after these revelations, what is the state of mind of your client, Gilles Artigues?
Master Buffard: “He is relieved that the affair has been revealed publicly. Because he has been blackmailed for years and as often, people who are blackmailed, there is a feeling of guilt and an impossibility to reveal things. We are not sure of being believed and above all, we are not sure of being able to prove that it really happened.
– Progress / Maxppp
And is it also for this reason that Gilles Artigues did not file a complaint as soon as he became aware of this video, in 2016? He only contacted you last July to defend himself…
Gilles Artigues consulted me from the moment Mediapart contacted him for the investigation which had been able to determine the reality of the facts of which he had been the victim. The investigation was extremely well documented, there were confessions and evidence. So, Gilles Artigues said to himself, “Mediapart was able to gather evidence, so I will be able to say what happened and justice can be seized”, while his fear [à Gilles Artigues, NDLR]was that, if he revealed these facts, no one would believe him.
You will file a complaint this Monday with the public prosecutor of Saint-Etienne on behalf of your client. For what reasons exactly?
It turns out that today Gilles Artigues was the victim of an ambush in an organized gang. He was invited to the hotel room of one of his colleagues, deputy mayor [selon l’enquête de Médiapart, il s’agirait de Samy-Kéfi-Jérôme, NDLR], whom he trusted. He went there and was invited to drink, which he does not dispute. And then he has no memory of the evening. He is convinced that he was drugged. The next day, he found himself in an abnormal condition. Then the person who recorded this video [il s’agirait toujours de Samy-Kéfi-Jérôme, selon Médiapart, NDLR] didn’t use it right away. It took 18 months for him to summon Gilles Artigues to his home to show him the video. From then on, he was told that if he didn’t do what he was told, the video would be released.
Gilles Artigues therefore told you that we made him sing with this video…
Yes, and we intend to file a complaint for blackmail and threats. He reserves the right to give the details to justice, since it will be seized tomorrow, Monday. But it is clear that, on numerous occasions, he has been blackmailed, specific threats to disclose this video on social networks or even to disclose it to his wife and children.
– Progress / Maxppp
Gilles Artigues also told you that he had denounced these facts and talked about the video to the mayor of Saint-Etienne, Gaël Perdriau…
He spoke to the mayor about it in 2016. And Gaël Perdriau should have informed the public prosecutor. We are therefore also going to file a complaint on this aspect, because it is an obligation of article 40 of the code of criminal procedure. Insofar as he is a competent authority to do so and he had knowledge of criminal offenses, it was up to him to seize the public prosecutor, which was not done.
You also intend to file a complaint for embezzlement of public funds…
Yes, because it has been shown, through the Médiapart investigation, that one of the authors of the video would have received 50,000 euros through municipal subsidies which had been paid to associations in Saint-Etienne. Moreover, in the investigation, these facts are not disputed by one of the authors of the plot [Gilles Rossary-Lenglet, NDLR]. This illegal use of public funds constitutes an offense and naturally, the prosecution will also be seized of this.
Mediapart journalists relied on the revelations of Gilles Rossary-Lenglet, who confided in the online investigation site. He claims to have organized an evening in Paris to be able to trap and film Gilles Artigues without his knowledge, with an escort-boy. Everything would have been organized from A to Z with Samy Kefi-Jérôme, his ex-companion and current education assistant at the City of Saint-Etienne.