A week after the violent attack in prison of the assassin of the prefect Erignac, Yvan Colonna, who is still in a coma, anger rose again a notch on Wednesday evening on the island in the nationalist camp. Violent clashes took place between protesters and law enforcement in several cities.
In Ajaccio (Corse-du-Sud), around 400 people had gathered in front of the prefecture at nightfall and clashes very quickly broke out.
The Ajaccio courthouse partially burnt down
Later that evening, protesters broke into the courthouse and set fires outside and inside the building, according to a police source. Reams of paper or rubbish were burned in the lobby and other fire starters blackened the facade, but the fires were quickly extinguished by firefighters.
“There was a fire on the ground floor of the court, no spread to the floors but a lot of damage”, detailed Jean-Jacques Peraldi, the director of the fire and rescue services of Corse-du- South. Two arrests took place.
At least 14 people were injured, according to the prefecture. Among them, a TF1 journalist was injured in the leg.
In Bastia (Haute-Corse), 23 CRS and three civilians were injured, including a photographer from the daily Corse-Matin, according to a report from the Haute-Corse prefecture published at the end of the demonstration around 9:30 p.m.
Finally, in Calvi (Haute-Corse), after a calm start to the demonstration, “about forty hooded demonstrators threw molotov cocktails at the sub-prefecture and broke windows with stones”, reported the prefecture. “This is the first time that the sub-prefecture of Calvi has been attacked in this way,” she comments. “The prefect condemns this violence and calls on everyone to calm down”.
The status of “particularly reported detainee” of Yvan Colonna lifted
Yvan Colonna was imprisoned in the central house of Arles. He had been asking for a long time to be brought back to Corsica, which was systematically refused to him because of a status of “particularly reported detainee”.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Jean Castex had lifted this status but this decision, far from appeasing, was deemed much too late in Corsica, Yvan Colonna being between life and death in a Marseille hospital since his attack on March 2 . His alleged attacker was indicted for attempted terrorist assassination.