Corruption is Everywhere > In French mayoral politics; And in Sheik Hasina's Bangladesh which includes a sitting British Labour MP

 

French mayor sentenced to prison for blackmailing political rival with sex tape

Europe

A French court has sentenced the mayor of Saint-Étienne, Gaël Perdriau, to four years in prison for orchestrating a blackmail plot against a political rival using a secretly recorded sex tape. Perdriau was found guilty of blackmail, criminal conspiracy and misuse of public funds, and was barred from holding public office. 

A French court on Monday sentenced a mayor to four years in jail for blackmailing a political rival with a secretly filmed sex tape involving a male sex worker.

Gaël Perdriau, who has been mayor of the eastern industrial city of Saint-Etienne since 2014, throughout the trial had denied ordering the recording of a video involving his former deputy, Gilles Artigues, a Roman Catholic who had spoken out against gay marriage.

But a court in the eastern city of Lyon found the 53-year-old guilty of blackmail, criminal conspiracy and diverting public funds, handing him four years behind bars – as well as another suspended – and a five-year ban from public office, effective immediately.

Perdriau was "entirely guilty", the presiding judge, Brigitte Vernay, said.

During the trial, prosecutors had argued that Perdriau commissioned the sex tape filmed in a hotel room in early 2015 to ensure Artigues' loyalty, warning he would release it if his deputy broke ranks.

"He was the one with his finger on the nuclear button," prosecutor Audrey Quey told the court, describing the mayor as the "decision-maker".

The court also handed prison sentences to three co-defendants, including the mayor's former chief of staff and another deputy, who admitted to setting up the trap.

After the ruling, Perdriau insisted he was innocent and vowed to appeal.

But Artigues in 2017 secretly recorded a conversation with Perdriau, in which the mayor can be heard telling him he has a "USB stick" full of compromising images and threatening to release them.

Artigues told the court the result was him being paralysed in city hall meetings.

"I was like a puppet," he said. "They put me there, and I smiled."

The former deputy – who testified that he had suffered suicidal thoughts – welcomed Monday's verdict.

"Today, I think I will be able to rebuild my life," he said, surrounded by family members.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Dhaka court sentences ex-Bangladeshi PM, British lawmaker to prison

By Darryl Coote & Paul Godfrey

   

Former Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina was sentenced to prison on Monday. File Photo by Keizo Mori/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 1 (UPI) -- A Dhaka court sentenced former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a British member of parliament and 14 others to prison on Monday, in a sprawling case revolving around influence peddling, corruption and the illegal allocation of land in the nation's capital.

Judge Rabiul Alam ruled Monday that Hasina had misused her powers as prime minister to influence officials to secure land allocations for her and her family, Dhaka Tribune reported. Alam also found Hasina's sister, Sheikh Rehana, and Rehana's daughter, British Labour MP Tulip Siddiq, had obtained plots by illegally influencing the prime minister, according to the local outlet.

The court found that Siddiq had influenced the process from Britain via social media platforms.

Hasina received a five-year sentence, Rehana a seven-year sentence and Siddiq a two-year sentence and a $821 fine, local daily Prothom Alo reported. The 14 others accused in the case each received five years.

Of the 17 defendants, only one was in court on Monday.

The case was filed mid-January, with the government accusing the defendants in connection with the illegal acquisition of plots of land in the Purbachal New City project in Dhaka.

According to the government, Purbachal New Town is "the biggest planned township in the country" at 6,213 acres, and will have about 26,000 residential plots of various sizes as well as 62,000 apartments.

The government said developer RAJUK "intends to plan and develop the area as self-contained New Township with all modern facilities and opportunities" with the intention of reducing population density in the capital and the existing acute housing problem.

The Anti-Corruption Commission had filed the case mid-January, accusing Siddiq of having illegally used her position as a British member of parliament to secure plots of land for her mother, Rehana, sister, Azmina Siddiq and brother, Radwan Mujib.

Both Mujib and Azmina Siddiq have been charged in a separate case.

Hasina resigned as prime minister in August 2024, and fled to India amid growing public anger over quotas for government jobs and a brutal crackdown on protests by her government that led to the deaths of as many as 1,400 people.

Last month, she was sentenced to death for crimes against humanity.

Siddiq, the sitting British member of parliament for the north London district of Hampstead and Kilburn, has strongly denied the charges against her. She resigned as Economic Secretary to the Treasury in Prime Minister Keir Starmer's cabinet in January over the case, despite an ethics investigation finding no wrong doing.

However, the independent ethics adviser criticized her for not being more alive to the "potential reputational risks" to the government from her ties to Hasina and being named by the Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission, initially in an investigation of infrastructure projects, and then over the land deal.