the mayor of Saint-Étienne, Gaël Perdriau, placed in police custody this Tuesday afternoon

The mayor of Saint-Étienne, Gaël Perdriau, was summoned on Tuesday April 4 at 3 p.m. by the Lyon judicial police with a view to his placement in police custody in the context of the intimate video blackmail case targeting his former first deputy, Gilles Artigues, learned franceinfo from concordant sources.

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This is the second time that the mayor of Saint-Étienne has been taken into custody in this case. Three other protagonists in this case were also placed in police custody: his chief of staff Pierre Gauttieri, as well as the two people suspected of having co-organized the conspiracy Gilles Rossary-Lenglet and Samy Kéfi-Jérôme.

The mayor of Saint-Étienne has always denied these accusations

They are suspected of being involved, at different levels, in a sextape blackmail that lasted for years against Gilles Artigues, the former first deputy mayor of Saint-Etienne. The case was revealed by Médiapart on August 26, 2022.

In September 2022, a judicial investigation was opened by the Lyon public prosecutor’s office for “invasion of privacy”, “aggravated blackmail”, “subtraction of public property by a person in charge of a public function”, ” breach of trust” and “concealment of these offences”. These four people had already been taken into police custody in September 2022, then released without being charged.

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The mayor of Saint-Étienne has always denied these accusations and had filed a complaint for “slanderous denunciation” after the publication of the Mediapart investigation. Since then, Gaël Perdriau had “withdrawn” from his duties in the metropolis of Saint-Étienne but always refused to resign from his mandate as mayor of the city.