French artist gets 4 months for throat-slitting threat to Lyon-area mayor

Thierry Ehrmann, artist and businessman, was sentenced to four months in prison on October 1, 2026, for death threats against the mayor of Saint-Romain-au-Mont-d'Or. He denies the facts and has announced his intention to appeal. The conviction stems from a September 2025 video where Ehrmann mimed a throat-slitting gesture and said "we'll go snip-snip on the mayor." The court rejected his defense's claims that the audio was unusable and the act was a joke, imposing a harsher penalty than the prosecutor's requested suspended sentence. Ehrmann's appeal suspends the prison term, and he remains presumed innocent. The case adds to a 22-year conflict with the village over his open-air art museum, the Demeure du Chaos, which was recognized as a "total work of art" by the Culture Ministry in 2025.