He has «in no way planned to withdraw from his duties», as requested by several local or national elected officials from his camp and local economic actors: and «nothing would justify his resignation on a legal level» , told AFP Me Christophe Ingrain.

«Gaël Perdriau is at work in the city as in the metropolis on all the files, at the service of the two communities and the inhabitants, with the same determination», also indicates a press release from his cabinet.

«He emerged free from three and a half hours of police custody without any action taken by the justice system against him», underlined his lawyer, describing as «disappointing» the numerous hostile reactions among the Republicans and criticizing the procedure. exclusion launched by LR.

The 50-year-old elected official was placed in police custody on Tuesday in Lyon as part of investigations into the filming and use of a video shot in January 2015 in which we see Gilles Artigues, his ex-first deputy and ex-deputy known for his Catholic commitment, being massaged by a man in a hotel room in Paris. The objective was to politically neutralize this centrist.

«Neither the mayor nor I are the sponsors of this video,» said his chief of staff on Wednesday in an interview with the local television channel TL7, saying he was «serene about the sequence of events».

The affair broke out at the end of August when the Mediapart news site published the detailed confessions of a former close friend of the municipal team on a «daub of morals» organized according to him at the request of the mayor and his relatives. The filming of the compromising video was, according to him, remunerated via fictitious services invoiced to two local cultural associations subsidized by the town hall.

The Lyon public prosecutor’s office has opened a judicial investigation for «invasion of privacy, aggravated blackmail, embezzlement of public property by a person in charge of a public function, breach of trust and concealment of these offenses» after a complaint by Gilles Artigues. The three investigating judges in charge of the case began to hear all the protagonists of this case, the complainant, the whistleblower, the mayor, his chief of staff, the education assistant and four heads of cultural associations for the financial side of the deal.