Ex-mayor of Saint-Étienne plays his last card in appeal trial to avoid prison

Former Saint-Étienne mayor Gaël Perdriau is set to face a crucial appeal trial in Lyon, beginning Monday, in his bid to avoid returning to prison. Perdriau, who was released under judicial supervision in March after serving two months, was handed a harsh four-year prison sentence and a five-year ban from public office in December 2025 for orchestrating a blackmail plot against his former deputy.

The initial court deemed the actions "extremely serious" and judged Perdriau to be "ignorant of his duties of dignity and exemplarity." The case centers on allegations that Perdriau, a member of the LR party, conspired with associates to create and use a sex tape to silence Gilles Artigues, a deputy who had helped secure Perdriau's election but was reportedly distancing himself. The affair only came to light in 2022, seven years after the intimate video was allegedly filmed.

Perdriau's defense lawyer, Me Jean-Félix Luciani, vehemently asserts his client's innocence. "We will simply say again that he is innocent of everything, that he is not the instigator of the trap, that he is guilty neither of conspiracy, nor of blackmail, nor of embezzlement of public funds," Luciani told AFP. The defense argues that the first-instance judgment was a miscarriage of justice.

However, the appeal presents a significant challenge, as three collaborators who were also convicted in the initial trial have implicated Perdriau as the mastermind behind the plot. It took the first trial, six months prior to the appeal, for Perdriau to finally relinquish his mayoral post. The appeal trial is scheduled to last five days.

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We will simply say again that he is innocent of everything, that he is not the instigator of the trap, that he is guilty neither of conspiracy, nor of blackmail, nor of embezzlement of public funds.