In February 2020, the majority tenor Benjamin Griveaux abandoned his campaign for mayor of Paris after the broadcast of intimate videos. More than three years later, the trial of Piotr Pavlenski and Alexandra de Taddeo opened on Wednesday.
The two defendants are sent back to court for having recorded and broadcast, without his consent, sexual images of Benjamin Griveaux. They face two years in prison and a fine of 60,000 euros.
The 39-year-old Russian artist and the 32-year-old Frenchwoman, held up by traffic jams according to their lawyers, arrived around 10:35 a.m. in a room at the Paris Criminal Court filled with journalists and the public.
The president, who had started the hearing without them, called Piotr Pavlenski, dressed all in black, and Alexandra de Taddeo, in a long sequined blue dress, holding the book she has just published in her hand.
As the magistrate began to decline their identity, the Russian artist launched in a loud voice: “Today will take place the judgment of my eighth subject-object art event, the pornopolitics event, I will be judged for mixing high and low style…”
As he continued, the President tried to interrupt him several times before suspending the hearing. Applause rang out as the court left the room.
A few minutes later, the court called Ms. de Taddeo back to the bar to tell her of her rights, but Piotr Pavlenski refused to get up, saying: “I announce the rule of silence, you don’t want to listen to me when I wanted to come and talk.”
“It’s your choice, the only thing is that the debates must take place in the greatest serenity,” replied the president.
Benjamin Griveaux, 45, who left politics for the private sector, was not present but represented by his lawyer Me Richard Malka.
Seven people were called as witnesses by the defence: three were absent, including actress Béatrice Dalle.
After the summary of the facts, the court viewed excerpts from the videos in camera.
The two defendants are sent back to court for having recorded and broadcast, without his consent, sexual images of Benjamin Griveaux. They face two years in prison and a fine of 60,000 euros.
On the morning of February 14, 2020, Benjamin Griveaux, then LREM candidate (now Renaissance) for mayor of Paris, announced his withdrawal from the campaign, castigating “despicable attacks involving (his) private life”.
Less than 48 hours earlier, videos of a man masturbating had been published on a site called “Pornopolitique”, whose link was relayed on social networks. The images were accompanied by a text signed Piotr Pavlenski.
These videos had been sent by Benjamin Griveaux to Alexandra de Taddeo during a brief relationship between May and August 2018. They had been edited with screenshots of messages exchanged between them.
This resignation of the former Secretary of State, government spokesperson and deputy, had caused a political scandal: left and right had unanimously criticized a “voyeuristic shipwreck” and a “threat to democracy”.
Piotr Pavlenski, known for extreme “performances” in Russia and a refugee in France since 2017, had claimed this action of “political art” aimed at denouncing the “disgusting hypocrisy” of Benjamin Griveaux who “used his family by presenting himself in icon for all the fathers and husbands of Paris”.
Benjamin Griveaux had quickly filed a complaint and an investigation had been opened.
During the procedure, Alexandra de Taddeo claimed to have kept these videos in order to have “proof” if her relationship with the politician came to know, but she assured that Piotr Pavlenski, whom she met at the end of 2018, broadcast them without his knowledge. The investigating judges, on the contrary, retained his “direct involvement”.
In Russia, Piotr Pavlenski has carried out several “political art events”: he sewed his lips in support of the protest group Pussy Riot, nailed his testicles in Red Square and he set fire to one of the doors of the historical headquarters of the Russian security services.
In January 2019, he was sentenced to three years in prison, including one firm, for having burned down the facade of a branch of the Banque de France in Place de la Bastille, a major place of the French Revolution, a historical misinterpretation according to him.
Scheduled for one day, the hearing could continue Thursday morning.
06/28/2023 17:03:51 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP