Sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of the prefect Claude Érignac in 1998, the Corsican independence activist Yvan Colonna was on Wednesday between life and death in a post-anoxic coma, following a deprivation of oxygen in the brain after a respiratory arrest coupled with a cardiac arrest, after being attacked by Franck Elong Abé, a fellow prisoner of the central house of Arles.
>> What we know about the attack on Yvan Colonna by a fellow prisoner in Arles prison
The facts took place in the morning while he was doing bodybuilding, alone, in a room of the establishment, when the latter attacked him. He was immediately taken into custody and an investigation was opened for murder. The national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office took up the investigation for “attempted assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise”.
A “floor assistant” inmate who knew Yvan Colonna
Yvan Colonna performed Wednesday morning, alone, a sports session in the weight room of the prison of Arles. Franck Elong Abe, he provided a cleaning service as a floor assistant. He knew Yvan Colonna and had played chess with him several times. Entering the gym, he threw himself on him with his bare hands, beat him, strangled and then suffocated. A scene of rare violence. He explains his gesture with a “blasphemy against God” of the Corsican separatist, learned franceinfo this Thursday from a source close to the investigation, confirming information from AFP
Sentenced to 9 years in prison for terrorism
Franck Elong Abé, 36 years old, of French nationality, originally from Cameroon. He was sentenced in 2015 to nine years in prison for “terrorist criminal association”. He left to do jihad in Afghanistan, he was arrested by American forces in 2012, then detained on the base of Bagram, a locality in Afghanistan located 60 km north of Kabul and nicknamed the “Guantanamo of the East”, before being delivered to France.
A detention marked by serious incidents
His detention in France is marked by numerous violent episodes: attempted escape, attacks on personnel, franceinfo has learned. Detained in the summer of 2019 in Condé-sur-Sarthe, one of the safest prisons in France, he stood out for fourteen acts of violence, damage and attempts to set fire to his cell. No incident in custody had been reported between the two men. The General Inspectorate of Justice was seized and the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office was contacted, with regard to the background of the respondent.