Gaël Perdriau is back in front of the cameras. Since his indictment on April 6, the mayor of Saint-Étienne had not spoken publicly. But on May 26, the city councilor chose to break the silence, on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of the bombing of his city and in front of the cameras of France 3 Rhône-Alpes. The 50-year-old, mayor of the town since 2014, wanted to provide an update on the current case. “I am innocent and I will put all my energy and my determination, as I have done for many, many years to prepare the future of the city, to demonstrate my innocence,” he explains.
“The hardest thing for me is that, for nine months, we have only heard one version of this story, that of the accusers and of a media outlet, which has selected snippets of recordings, snippets of documents to credit the story he tells. The real story is in the investigation file and in its entirety, not by broadcasting this or that sentence or by broadcasting this or that audio montage. I can’t wait for the judge to reveal the truth, which is not the one we’ve been told for nine months, “he added to claim his innocence.
Since August 2022, Gaël Perdriau has been targeted by accusations of blackmail. A Mediapart investigation revealed that the mayor of Saint-Étienne as well as several members of his entourage (his former chief of staff, his former deputy and the latter’s ex-companion) allegedly used an intimate video for blackmail purposes. . The victim would be the former first deputy Gilles Artigues. A conservative politician, he would have been filmed without his knowledge with an escort-boy in a hotel room.
Gaël Perdriau, then putative candidate for the head of LR, denounces a “political machination” and indicates that he is not aware of this affair, but a new recording from Mediapart has come to overwhelm him. Since then, the city councilor has been expelled from the party but has kept his elective functions except for his withdrawal from the presidency of the metropolis. Indicted for blackmail on April 6, Gaël Perdriau intends to assert his version in court.