“Shattering and surprising declarations must not make us deviate from this path of justice and truth,” said MP Jean-Félix Acquaviva.

Franck Elong Abé admitted the assassination of the Corsican independence activist in prison. But he now assures that it was the French state which sponsored it.

“The fact that there are resounding and surprising declarations [à propos de la mort d’Yvan Colonna]which must be studied and placed in the file and which must be investigated, must not make us deviate from this path of justice and truth”said Corsican nationalist MP Jean-Félix Acquaviva on Thursday March 21 on France Bleu RCFM, the day after revelations about a letter from the alleged murderer Franck Elong Abé which accuses the French state.

Franck Elong Abé admitted the assassination in prison of Yvan Colonna but he went back on his first statements. In a letter, he now targets state services. In his letter addressed to the anti-terrorism investigating judge, consulted by France Bleu RCFM, the detainee S now accuses the State services and in particular the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) of having ordered the death of the activist Corsican independence activist, in Arles prison, almost two years to the day after his assassination, March 21, 2022 [mort des suites de ses blessures à l’hôpital de Marseille]. “These are revelations which are surprising, which are seriousreacts Jean-Félix Acquaviva. However, they must also be taken with a certain amount of caution, of course.”

From blasphemy to sponsored act

The MP chaired the commission of inquiry into the death of Yvan Colonna. He delivered his conclusions in June 2023. Initially, Franck Elong Abé explained that he had killed Yvan Colonna due to a “blasphemy”. But in this four-page letter, written in his cell at Santé prison on February 14 and received by the magistrate on February 21, he returns to this version. The letter was added to the file and listed in the procedure, a judicial source confirmed to France Bleu RCFM. But these four pages have not yet been verified. This letter presents elements ranging from excess to inconsistency and contains numerous inaccuracies.

The conclusions of the parliamentary commission of inquiry had revealed a series of dysfunctions and the persistence of gray areas. But nothing supported the theory of state revenge, even if the deputy had not excluded this theory. Thus, he calls for caution both on the first confessions of Franck Elong Abé and on his last letter where his version changes. “The revelations are serious. They must be taken with caution, but they are serious”he repeats.

For the nationalist deputy, Franck Elong Abé does not have the unstable and psychotic, very dangerous profile that is attributed to him and the fact that he waited two years to write this letter and change his version does not prove anything. “The psychiatrist said clearly that he was not crazy and that if he had been crazy his place would have been in a psychiatric hospital or in solitary confinement but certainly not in community service and he could have gone to an assessment unitrecalls Jean-Félix Acquaviva. These are still hearings under oath. But if the thesis [de la folie] is true, why believe the first thesis of blasphemy, knowing that the national anti-terrorist prosecution only went to this thesis on the basis of its statements alone?” questions the chosen one.

Categorical denial from the Ministry of the Interior

Among the witnesses interviewed during the parliamentary commission of inquiry, “the prison officers as well as the current director of the Arles power station say that the thesis of blasphemy is impossiblecontinues the elected official. If on the one hand there is questioning about serious statements today, there is also the relativization of the first thesis which is exclusively followed by the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office. It was an Islamist prism, he admitted it, period. We can clearly see that things are much more complex than that.”

The Interior Ministry issued a categorical denial on Wednesday. The MP wants the commission’s conclusions to be made available to the judicial inquiry. The chosen one refers in particular to the fact that he has “requested article 40 with Laurent Marcangeli (Horizons deputy for Corse-du-Sud and rapporteur of the parliamentary commission of inquiry), contacted the Tarascon prosecutor on dysfunctions linked to possible non-registration or even the possible erasure of serious information which could go as far as non-assistance to a person in danger, I am talking about the conversation seized by an agent and other agents. We are still awaiting the results of this investigation which is an incidental investigation.”insists Jean-Félix Acquaviva. “We must take all the elements and the judicial investigation must put everything on the table to go as far as possible on the path to justice and truth, concludes Jean-Félix Acquaviva. We are waiting for us to have an impartial judicial investigation that gives itself the means to go as far as possible in all areas.”