Piotr Pavlenski in the office of his lawyer, in Paris, on February 14, 2020. - Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP

Russian artist Piotr Pavlenski, indicted in connection with the scandal that pushed Benjamin Griveaux to give up the mayor of Paris, told CNN Friday to have "stolen" the sexual video of the ex-candidate "in the computer »Of his partner Alexandra de Taddeo.

"I stole this material from his computer," says Piotr Pavlenski, speaking in hesitant French to the American news channel.

"She was not happy that I did not ask (to) her"

"She doesn't know that I found it and I'm taking this video (...). It was published and it started to be broadcast, and then she couldn't do anything, and she said + ok, if you do that ... ok you do that, ok + ", added Piotr Pavlenski.

The artist thus confirms the version of his companion, who acknowledged being the recipient of the Benjamin Griveaux sex videos while rejecting any responsibility for their dissemination.

"She was not happy that I did not ask (of) her, of course," said Piotr Pavlenski. “For me it was only the beginning. Of course, I was happy when I saw that these first porn political resources (note: an allusion to the name of the site on which the videos of Benjamins Griveaux were broadcast), people needed that, people started to read it immediately (...). It only existed for three days, it was the beginning, now I have to rebuild again, ”he continues.

Her refugee status questioned?

While the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner indicated that it will be possible to “question his refugee status” in the event of a judicial conviction, which seems legally questionable, Piotr Pavlenski replied: “Really I am not thinking about all that".

"In my life, there is always something that scares me, but now it's habit, it's always threats, threats, it's prison or it's psychiatric clinic, or it's someone else, ok now it's a threat that I lose political refugee status ... "he commented.

No longer allowed to contact

The activist and his partner were indicted Tuesday for "invasion of privacy by recording or transmitting the image of a person of a sexual nature" and "dissemination without the agreement of the person of a recording relating to words or images of a sexual nature and obtained with his consent or by herself ”.

They were both placed under judicial supervision, which prohibits them from entering into contact, but exchanged declarations of love via statements by their lawyers to the press.

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