Corsican separatist Yvan Colonna is dead, nearly three weeks after his attack in prison

Corsican separatist Yvan Colonna died on the evening of Monday March 21, nearly three weeks after his attack in Arles prison, franceinfo learned from his family’s lawyer. “The family of Yvan Colonna confirms his death this evening at the Marseille hospital. They ask that their mourning be respected and will not comment”announces Me Patrice Spinosi.

Sentenced for the assassination of the prefect Claude Erignac in February 1998, Yvan Colonna had been hospitalized for 19 days in Marseille. He was between life and death after his assault in Arles prison by a fellow prisoner. The Corsican nationalist was a victim “from strangulation with bare hands, then from suffocation”, according to the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT). An investigation was opened on March 3 for “attempted assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise.”

Since this attack, numerous violent demonstrations had taken place in Corsica at the call of elected nationalists and Corsican youth movements, particularly in Bastia and Ajaccio, in support of Yvan Colonna, but more generally to demand greater recognition. and greater autonomy for the island.

Four days ago, on March 17, the court suspended the separatist’s sentence “for medical reasons”. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, meanwhile, met with the island’s elected officials last week. A first cycle of meetings will begin in April on “all the Corsican issues, including the institutional evolution towards a status of autonomy which remains to be specified”had explained on franceinfo the president of the Corsican Executive Council Gilles Simeoni at the end of this ministerial visit.