The boss of the BestImage agency in pre-trial detention, one of her photographers indicted

"Mimi" Marchand, patron of the BestImage agency and nicknamed the high priestess of the press people, and one of its main photographers, Sebastien Valiela, were respectively imprisoned and indicted at the end of the week in two cases related to the Politics.

Michèle Marchand, whose real name was, had been indicted for "witness bribery" and "criminal association with a view to committing an organized gang scam" in early June.

"She spoke to someone"

The judges wonder about his role in the retraction unveiled in mid-November by Paris Match and BFM TV of the intermediary Ziad Takieddine as for his accusations according to which the 2007 presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy would have received Libyan funding. While she was placed under judicial control, with a ban on contact with several people including Nicolas Sarkozy, a freedoms and detention judge placed her in pre-trial detention on Friday evening for failure to comply with her judicial control, said a source close to the investigation then the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF).

"A wiretap established that she had not respected her judicial review because she spoke to someone" to whom she was not allowed to speak, said the source close to the investigation.

"Mimi Marchand" is reputed to have been close to the Sarkozy before becoming the guardian of the Macron's image.

Informal advisor, but also patron of the press, the contours of her action at the presidential palace have always remained vague, between communication and photojournalism.

Sébastien Valiela indicted in the Griveaux-Pavlenski case

His lawyer, Me Caroline Toby, could not be reached on Friday or Saturday. Four other people suspected of having taken part in the organization of this controversial interview were indicted in this investigation. The photographer author of the photo and video report of BestImage for Paris Match and BFM TV, Sébastien Valiela, was heard Tuesday as a "free suspect" in this investigation.

Saturday evening, Mediapart revealed that this photographer was indicted in another judicial investigation, relating to the dissemination by

in February 2020 of photos of the arrest of Piotr Pavlenski, the Russian artist at the heart of the case Griveaux.

According to a judicial source, Sébastien Valiela was indicted Friday for various offenses including that of "concealment of the violation of professional secrecy", and placed under judicial supervision.

In this case, two police officers were indicted on September 10, 2020 for "violation of professional secrecy".

A photographer behind famous shots

A third was also according to Mediapart, for the same offense, but also for "passive corruption". Piotr Pavlenski and his companion Alexandra de Taddeo were arrested on February 15 in the west of Paris, in front of the objective of Sebastien Valiela, who had been informed of the date and place of the operation. This arrest took place two days after the broadcast, claimed by Piotr Pavlenski, of videos of a sexual nature by Benjamin Griveaux, then LREM candidate for mayor of Paris, precipitating his withdrawal from the municipal battle on February 14, 2020.

Photos and a video showing Piotr Pavlenski lying face down on the ground with his hands shackled by handcuffs, had been released the following week by

. Sebastien Valiela is known to have taken some famous pictures, in addition to those of Ziad Takieddine recently: Mazarine Pingeot with his father François Mitterrand, published in Paris Match in 1994 and stolen photos of the romance between François Hollande and Julie Gayet, published in January 2014 in

.