Cargèse said a final farewell to the independence activist

With raised fists, hundreds of people sang the Corsican anthem in front of the church in Cargèse (Corse-du-Sud), Friday, March 25. Then the coffin of Yvan Colonna, covered with a flag with the head of a Moor, was carried in the middle of the crowd. Family members, nationalist or anonymous sympathizers came to attend his funeral. “There is a lot of emotion, a lot of pain and we support the family as we can.“, confides a woman. “We are here, we are sad. Corsica is sad“, adds a man.

Yvan Colonna, 61, was a Corsican nationalist activist. He died on Monday March 21 from his injuries, three weeks after being beaten and then suffocated by a radicalized prisoner in Arles prison (Bouches-du-Rhône). He was serving his sentence after being sentenced three times for the assassination of the prefect Claude Érignac, on February 6, 1998. In Cargèse, his hometown, the atmosphere was one of meditation. Gilles Simeoni, his former lawyer, now head of the Corsica community, had made the trip. The discussions concerning a potential statute of autonomy mentioned last week by Gérald Darmanin should resume soon.