His vital prognosis is engaged. Yvan Colonna was attacked by one of his fellow prisoners, this Wednesday morning, in the prison of Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône) where he is imprisoned. The murderer of prefect Erignac, 61, was rushed to hospital. For the time being, the lawyers of the “shepherd of Cargèse”, Me Sylvain Cormier, Me Stella Canava and Me Emmanuel Mercier-Pantalacci, “denies” his death “on the basis of the information that [leur] has just given the prison administration”. Initially hospitalized in Arles, he is now transferred to a hospital in Marseille. At the request of the Prime Minister, the General Inspectorate of Justice will be seized from this Wednesday, “to shed light on the conditions of this particularly serious aggression”the Chancellery said in a statement.
The facts allegedly took place in the courtyard, when an inmate, for reasons that are not yet known, violently attacked him with his bare hands. The latter is called Franck Elong Abé, according to a source familiar with the matter. He is a 36-year-old jihadist, sentenced to nine years in prison for criminal association with terrorists.
Yvan Colonna had been sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of the prefect of Corsica, Claude Erignac, on February 6, 1998 in Ajaccio, and for the attack, a few months earlier, of the gendarmerie of Pietrosella (Corse-du- South), where the murder weapon had been stolen. Number 1 suspect in the Erignac affair, Colonna had been wanted for four years, before being finally arrested in July 2003. The Corsican shepherd and independence activist has always denied being the author of this assassination.
Imprisoned in Arles, Yvan Colonna made several requests for reconciliation in Corsica, all refused. Twenty years after the events, three men are still imprisoned for the assassination of Claude Erignac.
Update : at 5:25 p.m., with more context.
More information to follow…