Victim Wednesday, March 2 of an attack in the prison of Arles where he was serving a life sentence for his participation in the assassination of the prefect Erignac, the Corsican independence activist Yvan Colonna is dead, we learned this Monday.
“What happened to Yvan Colonna is dramatic. I call to keep calm and cool and not to set Corsica ablaze”, reacted Valérie Pécresse Monday on CNEWS.
He had been hospitalized in critical condition in a hospital in Marseille. His attacker, Franck Elong Abe, 35, an inmate who was serving a sentence for terrorism, was indicted for attempted terrorist assassination.
Since this event, tension had risen sharply in Corsica, with the holding of a series of demonstrations interspersed with clashes and violence in support of Colonna.
Faced with the anger of the Corsicans, justice suspended Yvan Colonna’s sentence on Thursday March 17 for “medical reasons”. And the government, through Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, had put the autonomy of the Island of Beauty on the table.
The prefect of Corsica Claude Erignac was killed by three bullets in the back of the neck in a street in Ajaccio on February 6, 1998. On the 9th, an anonymous nationalist group claimed responsibility for the assassination.
In May 1999, four nationalist militants pointed out to the police Yvan Colonna as being the murderer of the prefect Erignac. On July 4, 2003, he was arrested in the maquis in Corse-du-Sud, after a four-year run.
On December 13, 2007, Colonna, who has never ceased to proclaim his innocence, was sentenced to life on December 13, 2007 by the special assize court in Paris, then on appeal on March 27, 2009.
On June 30, 2010, the Court of Cassation overturned his conviction for a procedural defect. At the end of his third trial, Yvan Colonna was again sentenced to life on June 20, 2011.
His cassation appeal was dismissed in July 2012.