Yvan Colonna died on Monday, almost three weeks after being seriously injured by one of his fellow prisoners in Arles prison where he was serving a life sentence for the assassination of the prefect Claude Erignac in 1998 in Ajaccio.
The man had notably made himself famous for his escape of more than four years in the Corsican maquis.
In parallel with the criminal investigation, an administrative investigation is underway to understand the circumstances of his attack and identify any shortcomings.
His death is a reflection of the case that made him famous: an event that goes beyond the framework of a simple news item.
Yvan Colonna, sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of the prefect Erignac, died on Monday in hospital at the age of 61, 19 days after being violently attacked by one of his co-detainees within the prison of Arles itself.
On March 2, Franck Elong Abé, notably convicted of acts of terrorism in Afghanistan, attacked the Corsican nationalist while the latter was in the weight room.
According to CCTV footage, he first throws himself on him, crushes his trachea, especially with his foot, then suffocates him with a plastic bag.
Nearly eight minutes of incredible violence, "systematic relentlessness", in the words of the anti-terrorism public prosecutor, Jean-François Ricard, who "leaves little doubt about the homicidal intentions" of the suspect.
The latter admitted the facts in police custody, indicating that he had done so after comments he considered blasphemous.
"The State was legally responsible for the safety of Yvan Colonna"
How could such a tragedy occur when Yvan Colonna and the suspect were under the status of "particularly guarded detainee"?
Why was there no guard in the immediate vicinity?
How was Franck Elong Abé able to obtain auxiliary status despite numerous incidents throughout his detention?
In parallel with the criminal investigation, which the national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office took up on Thursday March 3, an administrative investigation was opened to shed light on possible shortcomings or faults.
“The State was legally responsible for the security of Yvan Colonna […].
The prison administration – and the whole of the political hierarchy on which it depends – will have to render accounts to his family, ”said one of his lawyers, Me Patrice Spinosi, in a press release the day after the attack.
Beyond the circumstances of his death, the emotion caused by the death of Yvan Colonna, more than twenty-four years after the assassination of a bullet in the neck of Claude Erignac, illustrates the impact of this affair and its impact far beyond the Isle of Beauty.
"A barbaric act, extremely serious and unprecedented in our history", had asserted the day after the events, Jacques Chirac, the President of the Republic at the time.
It was the first time since Jean Moulin during the Second World War that a prefect had been assassinated.
A gesture claimed by a small dissident group of the FLNC, the "Anonymous", which thus intended to create an electric shock among the nationalists.
“We have to get back into the context of the time, insists political scientist Xavier Crettiez, professor at Sciences Po Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, Corsican nationalists have been in a logic of division.
By killing the prefect Erignac, the objective of this commando is not so much to reach the State as to commit an act which will allow him to recover legitimacy at a time when the FLNC is weakened.
It is, in fact, the reverse that occurs.
Five days after the assassination, 40,000 Corsicans – or 20% of the population – silently demonstrate in the streets of Ajaccio and Bastia to denounce the action of the commando.
Four years, one month and 11 days on the run
For a year, the investigation stalled, despite the arrest of nearly 370 people in 1998 alone. the first secrets of the affair.
On May 21, 1999, four separatists – Alain Ferrandi, Pierre Alessandri, Marcel Istria and Didier Maranelli – were arrested.
In police custody, they admit having participated in the attack and deliver the name of the "fifth man", the one who pulled the trigger of the Beretta 9mm.
The shooter would be a shepherd from Cargèse, in the west of the island, Yvan Colonna, son of a socialist deputy.
But the information leaked and the one who then became the number one suspect disappeared a few hours after claiming his innocence in front of a TF1 camera.
“Perhaps we have the profile of the people responsible for this action,
but we are there for nothing.
I don't see why this relentlessness, ”he says before taking to the maquis.
If the investigations lead the investigators to the four corners of the globe, the shepherd of Cargèse has never left his island.
For four years, one month and 11 days, he simply goes from isolated farm to isolated farm.
“There may have been around Yvan Colonna a somewhat romanticized imagery of the resistant or of the maquisard, analyzes Xavier Crettiez.
But don't think he was helped by the whole island.
He received the support of a very small circle of relatives.
It was finally the spinning, in June 2003, of the manager of a campsite who was to lead the Raid to the heights of Propriano, in the sheepfold where the suspect was hiding.
Yvan Colonna was arrested on May 4, 2003. The same evening, the Minister of the Interior, Nicolas Sarkozy, who made his arrest a hobbyhorse, exulted.
“The French police have just arrested Yvan Colonna,
Systematic refusal of transfer to Corsica
Despite his constant denials, the nationalist was sentenced to life imprisonment on December 13, 2007. A sentence confirmed in 2009 – but canceled by the Court of Cassation – then during the last trial, in 2011, despite the efforts of his lawyers, including the current Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti.
“These convictions did not arouse any particular reactions on the island, specifies the political scientist.
On the other hand, there is almost unanimous support for the three men still detained in this case to serve their sentence in Corsica.
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Yvan Colonna, like Alain Ferrandi and Pierre Alessandri, also sentenced to life imprisonment, have always had their requests for transfer to Borgo prison refused, because of their status as "particularly guarded detainee" (DPS).
In an attempt to appease the strong tensions in Corsica in recent weeks, Jean Castex announced the lifting of this measure for the shepherd of Cargèse, first, then for the two other members of the commando.
Yvan Colonna then saw his sentence suspended at the end of last week.
Miscellaneous facts
Aggression of Yvan Colonna: Radicalized, impulsive, virulent… The worrying profile of the suspect
Miscellaneous facts
What we know about the attack on Yvan Colonna in Arles prison
claude erignac
Society
Assassination
Corsica
Justice
Yvan colonna
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