2024-03-22 08:26:34
The Béziers courthouse (Hérault), September 1, 2016. SYLVAIN THOMAS / AFP
The mayor of Agde (Hérault), Gilles d’Ettore (Les Républicains, LR), was indicted on Thursday March 21, notably for illegal taking of interests and corruption, and placed in pre-trial detention after having been framed and then corrupted by a medium, announced the Béziers prosecutor, Raphaël Balland.
This 44-year-old woman, self-employed in Agde, who presents herself as a clairvoyant, medium and “healer”, was also placed in pre-trial detention at the end of her forty-eight hours in police custody. Her husband, director of technical services at Agde town hall, was placed under judicial supervision, the prosecutor said in a press release.
The story turns out to be incredible: this medium is suspected of having used a “stratagem consisting of changing one’s voice to many people, including family members and close friends”of which the mayor of Agde, 55, was a member since their meeting in May 2020. She would have bewitched him “using this masculine-looking voice on the phone, calm and hoarse”in order to make him believe that he was “in conversation with a supernatural being from beyond”detailed the prosecution. “This “voice” mainly encouraged its interlocutors to care about the well-being of this woman, including materially”specifies the press release.
Victim of scams
Through this stratagem, she admitted, while in police custody, to having benefited from numerous services, mainly from Mr. d’Ettore, mayor of Agde since 2001, president of the Hérault Méditerranée agglomeration and former deputy of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) from 2007 to 2012. She would thus have obtained the recruitment within the commune or agglomeration of five people from her family or close friendly circle, including her own husband as technical director of the town hall.
These facts led to her being prosecuted for fraud, concealment of embezzlement by a person holding public authority, concealment of corruption and concealed work. During her police custody, she said she regretted her behavior, maintaining that she had entered “in a spiral from which she could no longer escape”.
The elected official is being prosecuted for embezzlement by a person holding public authority, illegal taking of interests and corruption. Before the investigators, he admitted to having been convinced of the existence of ” the voice “ and that this woman, whom he considered his daughter, “was gifted with supernatural powers”. He only became aware of having been the victim of a scam when investigators showed him a video of the woman modifying her voice. On the other hand, he denies having committed any crime, specifies the press release from the prosecution.
The clairvoyant’s husband, now banned from exercising his function as technical director of the city, is suspected of concealment of illegal taking of interests, concealment of embezzlement by a person holding public authority and concealment of corruption.
The investigation, during which around forty people were interviewed, was launched in October 2023, before the opening of a judicial investigation against X on January 5, by the Béziers public prosecutor’s office, in particular for organized gang fraud.
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