A “Mediapart” survey reveals that the elected centrist was trapped and filmed without his knowledge while he was in a hotel room with an escort boy. At least one member of the municipal majority of Stéphanoise is directly questioned.
Le Monde
An ambush with a strong political resonance. Gilles Artigues, first centrist assistant of the city of Saint-Etienne between 2014 and 2022, was the victim of political blackmail after being trapped and filmed without his knowledge with an escort boy, at the instigation of Less an elected representative of his own majority, according to A survey published by Mediapart Friday August 26.
The investigation site designates an elected representative of the municipal majority, Samy Kéfi-Jérôme, today also regional councilor in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, and his companion of the time, Gilles Rossary-Lenglet, as the actors main of the case. At the end of 2014, both would have placed a camera in a Parisian hotel room and filmed Gilles Artigues with an escort boy, whose services were said to have been reserved by them. This video would then have served to make the elected centrist sing, in particular in order to “contain his political influence” in Saint-Etienne, according to Mediapart.
“threats and blackmail”
Gilles Artigues’s lawyer, André Buffard, confirms to the world that he will file a complaint against X and against Samy Kéfi-Jérôme earlier this week for “Guet-Apens in a band organized funded by public funds”, ” Non-denunciation of crime or crime “, threats and blackmail. According to him, Mr. Artigues has elements of evidence, in particular conversations in which he is threatened to disclose this video to his family. Still according to his lawyer, Mr. Artigues thinks he was drugged that evening: “He knows Mr. Kéfi-Jérôme who brought him to his room for a futile pattern and made him drink. He then remembers Not much. “The Saint-Etienne prosecutor’s office confirms having no complaints” at this time “and wait for it to be filed to analyze the facts.
Joined by the investigation site, Samy Kéfi-Jérôme recognizes the existence of this video, but invokes the protection of his “privacy” not to say more. “I have managed everything from Saint-Etienne. Samy paid the escort on the spot,” said Mediapart his former companion, Gilles Rossary-Lenglet. The latter says that the mayor of Saint-Etienne as well as his chief of staff “mandated Samy to show the short video”. Gilles Rossary-Lenglet also claims that the couple would have touched sums of money that would have passed through municipal subsidies.
The mayor of Saint-Etienne, Gaël Perdriau (LR), did not follow up on the requests of the world immediately. With Mediapart, the councilor as well as its chief of staff, Pierre Gauttieri, both dispute that he had been informed of this operation. Saturday, August 27, Gaël Perdriau clarified in front of the camera of local television TL7 contesting “any notion of blackmail which would be linked to the decisions taken recently by Gilles Artigues” when he was first assistant.