2023-06-16 11:24:51
There was the time of reconstruction. From now on, Gilles Artigues is ready to speak. Since the revelations of Mediapart last summer on the blackmail to the sextape of which he would have been the victim, the former deputy had remained discreet. But the investigation has progressedhis status as a victim has been recognized, and these recent events have given him the strength to speak out in the media since Monday.
“And then, what was done to my friend Lionel Boucher a few days ago, to whom the delegations were withdrawn, which I find totally scandalous, also pushes me to speak up, to defend him and to denounce this abuse of power”, he underlines to France Blue this Friday.
“The Perdriau affair” broke out at the end of August 2022, when Mediapart reveals sextape blackmail, targeting Gilles Artigues, former centrist first deputy of Saint-Étienne and political rival of the mayor, Gaël Perdriau. The video, shot without his knowledge in a Parisian hotel in the winter of 2014, shows him in the company of a gay escort. Mediapart told how Gilles Artigues, elected respected, had been trapped by one of his colleagues, Samy Kéfi-Jérôme, and by Pierre Gauttieri, then chief of staff of Gaël Perdriau.
Elected since 2014 as mayor of Saint-Étienne, Gaël Perdriau was indicted in April for blackmail in particular and placed under the status of assisted witness for “embezzlement of public funds by a depositary of public authority”.
« Torture morale »
On France Bleu, Gilles Artigues confides the torrent of contrary emotions that he feels since the media coverage of the affair. “It was kind of liberating when it was all made public. I knew that this blackmail, these threats, this moral torture would stop. But I had no idea that it was going to take on such media coverage at the national level. And that is something difficult to live with. If today you type my name on a search engine, it comes out “Sextape”! So for my family and for myself, it’s a suffering, a new suffering. »
Gilles Artigues was able to count on his family, unfailing support. “They just blamed me for not talking about it sooner. But it was very difficult to do it because I thought no one would believe me. »
The political blackmail lasts eight years. Exhausted, Gilles Artigues begins secretly recording certain interviews with Mayor Gaël Perdriau, in his office, and Pierre Gauttieri, his chief of staff. Edifying excerpts were unveiled in a survey of “Special Envoy”, broadcast Thursday evening. The threats are extremely clear and violent: “All parents of students who are in the same class as your children will receive a copy of the film. And I don’t think your children will recover from it, ”says Pierre Gauttieri.
“When I understood that this video was going to be used against me by the mayor in particular, I said to myself that life was over and I really thought about ending my life,” Gilles Artigues told France Bleu. Looking back, he understands that he was “under total control”. A hold that forced him to give up his candidacy for the 2022 legislative elections.
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