The Corsican separatist Yvan Colonna, imprisoned for several years at the central house of Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône), is in a coma after being assaulted by a fellow prisoner on Wednesday March 2. The 61-year-old shepherd had been sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination, in 1998, of the prefect of Corsica Claude Erignac. The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office has taken up the investigation. Franceinfo takes stock of what we know of his attack.
Yvan Colonna is hospitalized in serious condition
It was in the middle of the morning, Wednesday March 2, that Yvan Colonna was found unconscious by a supervisor, in a sports hall in the prison of Arles. According to a press release from the public prosecutor of Tarascon, the Corsican separatist was doing bodybuilding alone when he was attacked, strangled “with bare hands” then suffocated by another inmate. The latter was performing a cleaning service at the time of the events.
The shepherd from Cargèse (Corse-du-Sud) has since “in a post-anoxic coma”, said one of his lawyers, Emmanuel Mercinier-Pantalacci. This information was confirmed by the public prosecutor of Tarascon, Laurent Gumbau. This type of coma is the consequence of oxygen deprivation in the brain.
After being admitted to hospital in Arles, Yvan Colonna was urgently transferred to a hospital in Marseille, still in the Bouches-du-Rhône. Thursday morning, there was “no improvement or deterioration” of his condition, according to another of his lawyers, Patrice Spinosi.
The detainee in question had been convicted of terrorism
According to information from franceinfo, the detainee implicated in this attack is a 36-year-old Frenchman, radicalized and imprisoned for terrorism. He left to do jihad in Afghanistan, was arrested there in 2012 and was detained for two years at the American base in Bagram, nicknamed the “Eastern Guantanamo”. Returned to France in 2014, he was sentenced the following year to nine years in prison for “criminal association in connection with a terrorist enterprise”, with a view to preparing an attack.
The imprisonment of this man in France has been marred by multiple episodes of violence. In Rouen (Seine-Maritime), the detainee had committed a suicide attempt before being transferred to Seclin prison (North), from where he had tried to escape according to France 3 Hauts-de-France. In 2015, he threatened a psychiatric intern in his cell. Still in detention, he had been tried for 14 acts of degradation and fire committed in his cell in Conde-sur-Sarthe (Orne), one of the most secure prisons in France. In October 2019, he had been transferred to Arles and was released “end of 2023”assures a penitentiary source to the World.
He explains his gesture by “a blasphemy”
Questioned by the investigators, the attacker explains his gesture by “a blasphemy against god”according to a source close to the investigation. “The General Inspectorate of Justice will be seized to shed full light on the conditions of this particularly serious aggression”, at the request of the Prime Minister, announced the Ministry of Justice on Wednesday March 2. No incident had been reported between the two detainees, said the Tarascon prosecution.
The alleged attacker has been taken into custody and an investigation for “assassination attempt” was entrusted to the zonal direction of the South judicial police, based in Marseille. The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office was also contacted, “in view of the background of the defendant”.
“We are obviously going to do whatever it takes to get the truth out about this attack on [Yvan] Colonna, assured the Minister of the Interior, Thursday on France Inter. I think everyone is very shocked by this story. I want to have a thought for the family [d’Yvan] Colonna.” “I also want, as Minister of the Interior, to have a thought for Madame Erignac and the Erignac family”added Gérald Darmanin.
The anti-terrorism prosecution has taken up the investigation
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) announced on Thursday that it would take up the investigation. “The circumstances of the facts and the first elements of the investigation which seem, as it stands, to exclude a dispute of a personal nature, motivate this referral”explains the Pnat in a press release, specifying that the investigation was open for “attempted assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise”.
Yvan Colonna was detained under a special regime
Arrested on July 4, 2003, Yvan Colonna had been sentenced, after three highly publicized trials, to life imprisonment with an 18-year security period. He had stayed in several penitentiary establishments, before being transferred to Arles at the end of 2012. The Corsican separatist was placed there under the regime of “particularly reported prisoner”, a status which requires reinforced surveillance and specific conditions of incarceration. Yvan Colonna had not reported any recent threats or conflicts with other detainees, a member of his team of lawyers, Stella Canava, told France 3 Corse.
The Corsican separatist has always denied having participated in the assassination of the prefect Erignac. Considering himself deprived of a fair trial, he had seized the European Court of Human Rights in January 2013 but the request had finally been deemed inadmissible. All his requests to be transferred to Corsica, closer to his family, had also been refused. His status as a “particularly reported detainee” prevented him from being imprisoned in the Corsican prison of Borgo.
Patrice Spinosi denounced on franceinfo a “extremely serious failure of the prison administration” and “the incapacity of the state” to protect his client. “We left him in this central house, which is a house reserved for the most dangerous prisoners, (…) and today we come to this tragedy”, lamented the lawyer.
“The State was legally responsible for Yvan Colonna’s safety. If he dies, the prison administration and the entire political hierarchy on which it depends will have to be held accountable”, his family said on Wednesday. The president of the executive council of Corsica, Gilles Simeoni, also considered that the State carried “an overwhelming responsibility” in this attack.