“The State bears an overwhelming, primary responsibility in this affair and on several levels”denounced Gilles Simeoni, president of the Executive Council of the community of Corsica and former lawyer for Yvan Colonna, this Thursday on franceinfo, the day after the attack on the Corsican nationalist in the prison of Arles by a fellow prisoner, who provoked demonstrations on the island.
While Yvan Colonna is currently in “an almost hopeless state”in the words of Gilles Simeoni, the president of the executive council of Corsica has targeted “state and government” for not applying “the right to reconciliation” to a Corsican prison of prisoners sentenced for the assassination of the prefect Claude Érignac. “If the right to rapprochement had been applied, as it should have been, the tragedy would not have happened”he assured.
>>> Aggression of Yvan Colonna: “We will do everything necessary for the truth to be made”, assures Gérald Darmanin
Furthermore, Gilles Simeoni estimated that “the circumstances of this attack” were “more than troubles” and predictable. Based on the fact that “Corsican detainees had been designated as targets by radical Islamist networks”he claimed to have “seized in writing and orally, since 2016, all Prime Ministers and government interlocutors, of the fact that there was a particular risk with radical Islamists”.
“For several years, the prison administration, the government at the highest level of the State, have known that there is a particular risk and despite their repeated information from me and from the lawyers, we deliberately left in direct contact with ‘Yvan Colonna, an individual who was obviously extremely dangerous’lamented Gilles Simeoni. “We will have to understand how and why”he added, wondering in particular about the fact “that no one has seen or heard anything” of this attack “long and particularly violent”.
Asked about these accusations of state failure, Gabriel Attal said on Thursday on franceinfo that “the French State provides protection to all detainees who are threatened”. The government spokesman recalled that a judicial inquiry had been opened and that an administrative inquiry had been launched. “We will await the investigation with a certain form of mistrust”had already reacted Gilles Simeoni, denouncing “the culmination of a refusal to apply the law in a logic of State revenge”.