The right-wing mayor of Saint-Étienne in south-east France, Gaël Perdriau, was placed under formal investigation for alleged blackmail by three investigating judges at Lyon on Thursday April 6th. The investigation centres on claims that one of Perdriau's assistant mayors, centrist Gilles Artigues, was blackmailed for several years over an intimate video of him with another man.
Perdriau's former chief of staff, Pierre Gauttieri has also been placed under investigation for blackmail with menaces and a number of other accusations, including the misuse of public funds.
Two other men, the mayor's former assistant mayor Samy Kéfi-Jérôme, and the latter's former partner Gilles Rossary-Lenglet, are also being investigated for a number of alleged offences, including blackmail with menaces.
The alleged blackmail plot against the assistant mayor emerged during revelations by Mediapart in 2022.
All four men deny any wrongdoing.
Read more of the story, in French, here.
See Mediapart English's background to the story here, here and here.