The funeral of Yvan Colonna, a Corsican pro-independence activist convicted of the murder of Prefect Erignac and fatally assaulted in prison, will take place on Friday at 3pm in his family village of Cargèse (Corse-du-Sud). sources close to the case and the family.
“The family confirms” the place and time of the funeral, told AFP Me Patrice Spinosi, one of the lawyers for the family of the deceased, whose body will be repatriated to Corsica from the Marseille hospital on Wednesday evening. .
“Murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise”
Yvan Colonna, who was serving a life sentence for his involvement in the 1998 assassination of Prefect Claude Erignac in Ajaccio, had been violently assaulted in the gym of the Arles prison (Bouches-du-Rhône) by a fellow detainee, Franck Elong Abé, a 36-year-old Cameroonian man, was serving several sentences, including one of nine years in prison for “association of terrorist criminals.”
This radicalized detainee has since been indicted for attempted terrorist assassination. Following the death of Yvan Colonna, the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office requested, on Monday, the reclassification of this indictment as “assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise”. According to several sources, the aggressor of Yvan Colonna had justified his act by the fact that the Corsican militant would have blasphemed and “spoke badly of the Prophet”.
Promised discussions on the autonomy of Corsica
The day after the announcement of the death of Yvan Colonna, meditation prevailed on the island, contrasting with the scenes of violence which punctuated the various demonstrations of support for the Corsican activist for nearly two weeks. The circumstances of his attack, and in particular the duration of it without the intervention of guards, aroused anger and controversy and are the subject of a judicial inquiry, an administrative inspection as well as parliamentary hearings.
This anger, directed against a “French state” described as “assassin” by the protesters, culminated in riots on March 13 in Bastia, with a demonstration that left 102 injured, including 77 on the side of law enforcement. Calm had returned last week, with a three-day visit to Corsica by Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who promised talks with Corsican elected officials and the island’s living forces on possible autonomy.