Three police custody were underway Tuesday, May 24 in Corsica as part of investigations opened for violence against persons holding public authority committed on the sidelines of demonstrations in support of independence activist Yvan Colonna, told AFP the Bastia prosecutor.
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Two of these police custody, carried out at the request of the Bastia public prosecutor’s office within the framework of preliminary investigations, concern minors and events which took place on March 9 and April 1 in Bastia, specified Arnaud Viornery, prosecutor of the Republic of Bastia. A search took place at one of the two detained, according to the same source.
“95 throwing Molotov cocktails”
On March 9, the prefecture of Haute-Corse had denounced in a press release the presence at the end of the afternoon of “violent protesters” who “attacked the security forces positioned inside and around the prefecture” in Bastia, specifying that these had “suffered 95 Molotov cocktails» and throws of «farm bombs, iron balls (and) sling shots“. Eight police officers were injured, the prefecture said. On April 1, clashes also took place in Bastia between demonstrators and the police.
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The third police custody concerns an adult and takes place at the request of an investigating judge as part of a judicial investigation opened for events committed on March 13, said the prosecutor. The attack on Yvan Colonna on March 2 in Arles prison (Bouches-du-Rhône), where he was serving his life sentence for his participation in the assassination of the prefect Claude Erignac, then his death on March 21, had triggered numerous demonstrations in Corsica, most of them enamelled with violence. About ten days after this attack, Jean Castex, then Prime Minister, had agreed to lift the status of “particularly reported detaineeby Alain Ferrandi and Pierre Alessandri.
This Tuesday, the Paris Court of Appeal “rejected the request for adjustment of sentence formulated by Alain Ferrandi“. On May 12, semi-freedom was granted to Pierre Alessandri, but this decision was also subject to a suspensive appeal from the national anti-terrorism prosecution (Pnat). Regarding the arrests linked to the demonstrations, the youth movement of the independence party Corsica Libera, Ghjuventu Libera, regretted that “the discussions between Paris and Corsica take place in the police stations“, calling “all Corsicans and particularly its youth“to himself”be ready for a major mobilization“.
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The nationalist deputy Paul-André Colombani denounced on Twitter a “new day of repression and relentlessness“. Aiutu Paisanu, an association for the defense of Corsican prisoners, also regretted the arrests linked to the demonstrations, saying that “repression will never be a solution to the Corsican problem“.
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