Overview
- On the third day of hearings, judges played audio of Perdriau telling his then–deputy that once the video was online it would no longer be blackmail, which he now says was a bluff born of anger.
- Former chief of staff Pierre Gauttieri testified that the mayor approved the operation and said he would handle the financing, deepening internal fractures in the defense narrative.
- The court scrutinized two €20,000 subsidies drawn from the mayor’s reserve in 2014–2015 and funneled through associations to Gilles Rossary-Lenglet, with the presiding judge calling the amounts exceptional.
- Proceedings also referenced the in‑camera screening of a montage of the 2015 hotel video showing Gilles Artigues with a male escort, a piece of evidence central to the alleged coercion.
- Perdriau denies ordering or using the video and contests any diversion of public funds; he and seven others face charges that carry up to ten years in prison and possible ineligibility, with judgment expected after deliberation following this week’s hearings.