The Corsican independence activist Yvan Colonna is in a "very serious condition, his vital prognosis is engaged", according to a source close to the investigation opened after his attack, Wednesday March 2, in the courtyard of the prison. Arles where he was incarcerated.

Sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of the prefect Claude Érignac in 1998, Yvan Colonna was violently attacked with his bare hands by another detainee, for reasons still unknown, a police source told AFP, confirming a information from BFMTV.

"For the moment, he is in intensive care, he is not dead," the source close to the investigation told AFP.

"His condition is very worrying," a source close to the case confirmed to AFP, adding that his attacker had put a "bag" on the head of Yvan Colonna, who lost consciousness.

His alleged attacker is a 36-year-old jihadist, sentenced to nine years in prison for terrorist criminal association, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The judicial police have been seized of the investigation for attempted assassination, according to a source close to the investigation.

Four years on the run

Now 61, the shepherd and independence activist was arrested in July 2003 for the assassination of the prefect Claude Érignac in February 1998 in Ajaccio, after four years on the run in the Corsican maquis.

He always denied the facts.

Imprisoned in Arles, Yvan Colonna made several requests for reconciliation in Corsica, all refused.

Twenty-four years after the events, three men are still imprisoned for the assassination of the senior official.

On the evening of February 6, 1998, the prefect of Corsica, Claude Érignac, died under the bullets of a killer who shot him in the back, in a street in Ajaccio, while he was walking to the theater.

He was hit by three 9 mm caliber projectiles, one of which was shot in the neck at close range and two in the head to finish him on the ground.

The weapon, a Beretta pistol, abandoned on the spot, had been stolen in 1997 during a commando operation at the Pietrosella gendarmerie, near Ajaccio.

With AFP

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