the mayor’s former chief of staff indicted for “criminal conspiracy”

The investigation is progressing. Pierre Gauttieri, the former chief of staff of the mayor of Saint-Etienne (Loire) was indicted in December for “criminal conspiracy” in the sex tape affair aimed at blackmailing the centrist first deputy, announced Thursday January 4 the Lyon public prosecutor’s office, confirming information from Mediapart.

This “supplementary indictment” was pronounced on December 18 against the former right-hand man of Gaël Perdriau (ex-LR), in office from 2014 until his dismissal for “breach of trust” at the end of 2022.

The mayor of Saint-Etienne contests the accusations

During a new hearing by the investigating judges, Pierre Gauttieri, who had until then denied any responsibility in the filming of the compromising video, also directly implicated the mayor. He claimed that the decision to blackmail centrist Gilles Artigues aimed to neutralize him politically, according to Mediapart. “He gave the green light when it was submitted to him by me”declared Pierre Gauttieri to the magistrates, according to extracts from the hearing minutes obtained by Mediapart.

Faced with these new accusations, the mayor of Saint-Etienne contested “with force” THE “new declarations” by Pierre Gauttieri, who according to him are “in total contradiction with those he has made since the start of the procedure”. “I maintain with the same force that I have not requested, organized, benefited, neither directly nor remotely, from any blackmail”he wrote in a short press release.