Yvan Colonna was assaulted on Thursday by a prisoner sentenced to nine years in prison for "criminal association with a view to preparing an act of terrorism".
He is hospitalized in Marseille and is in a coma this Thursday.
His condition is stable according to his lawyer.
The 36-year-old suspect was taken into custody.
According to our information, this radicalized detainee explained his gesture to the investigators by a "blasphemy against God" attributed to Yvan Colonna.
For the lawyer of the family of the "shepherd of Cargèse", condemned for the assassination in 1998 of the prefect Claude Erignac, this attack raises "a lot of questions".
While Yvan Colonna is still hospitalized in Marseille in serious condition, investigations are continuing to understand the motivations of his attacker.
The investigation took a new turn on Thursday, this Thursday, after the national anti-terrorism prosecution seized the facts.
A decision justified by the profile of the suspect, Franck Elong Abe, a jihadist sentenced on April 20, 2020 to nine years in prison with a two-thirds security period for criminal association with a view to preparing acts of terrorism.
The duration of his police custody for “attempted assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise” can now be extended to 96 hours.
The first elements of the investigation, entrusted to the Sdat, the Marseille judicial police and the DGSI, seem to exclude a personal dispute.
According to our information, the suspect explained his gesture to the investigators by a "blasphemy against God" attributed to Yvan Colonna.
Franck Elong Abe is suspected of having tried to strangle and suffocate Yvan Colonna on Wednesday morning, when the two detainees were alone in the weight room of the prison of Arles where, for ten years, the Corsican shepherd , aged 61, is serving his sentence of life imprisonment for the assassination of the prefect Erignac in February 1998.
“Psychiatric instabilities”
Once the alert was triggered, the victim was rescued by staff from the prison's health unit, who performed cardiac massage.
Supported by the Smur and the firefighters, Yvan Colonna was transported to the hospital in Arles before being transferred in the evening to Marseille.
The famous Corsican detainee, who is in a post-anoxic coma - following oxygen deprivation in the brain -, was this Thursday in a "stable" state according to one of his lawyers, Me Patrice Spinosi, specifying that he was not brain dead, as several sources claimed on Wednesday.
The investigation aims to determine if Franck Elong Abe had premeditated his gesture.
According to a security source, the suspect, who has converted to Islam, is described as being "radicalized", "impulsive and virulent", "also suffering from psychiatric instabilities which have earned him several stays in psychiatric units".
In 2011, this 36-year-old Cameroonian joined Afghanistan to fight alongside terrorist groups.
Captured by the American military in 2012, he spent two years in detention in Bagram, the main military prison in Afghanistan, located about sixty kilometers from Kabul.
He was finally repatriated to France in 2014 and ended up in prison in Rouen, Normandy, where he spent part of his youth.
In April 2016, he was sentenced to nine years in prison.
"Closed in on Himself"
Meanwhile, Franck Elong Abe has stood out several times in detention.
While imprisoned in Rouen, he attempted suicide in February 2015. Transferred the following month to Seclin hospital-prison, in the North, he attempted to escape after threatening a young psychiatric intern with a pointed object.
For these facts, he receives an additional four years in prison.
In October 2019, the suspect once again finds himself in court.
He is on trial in Alençon (Orne) for having damaged and set fire to his cell 14 times between July and August 2019. He is sentenced to 9 months in prison.
To serve his sentence, he was transferred from the prison of Condé-sur-Sarthe (Orne) to Arles on October 17, 2019. There, he ensured the maintenance of the rooms on the ground floor as an auxiliary 'stage.
"It's a sign of confidence because we allow this prisoner to move around the prison more easily with brooms, cleaning products," notes a prison source.
A decision taken in committee by the management of the establishment, with the approval of the interregional management of the prison administration, but which surprised many supervisors.
Indeed, Franck Elong Abe was “withdrawn and spoke little with the staff.
This choice was not wise, ”continues our source.
A representative of the Ufap-Unsa justice union believes that it would be necessary to create establishments “accommodating detainees with targeted profiles, including those convicted of terrorism cases”.
“A lot of questions”
For the lawyer of Yvan Colonna and his family, Me Patrice Spinosi, this attack raises "a lot of questions".
“How could the suspect become an auxiliary when he is clearly dangerous?
How could these two detainees, who were closely watched, find themselves alone in the same room, without supervision?
»
The lawyer also observes that the guards intervened after Franck Elong Abe left the gym to warn that Yvan Colonna had become unwell.
“While there is a surveillance camera in the room, why was there no intervention?
“Before concluding:” There is something completely unacceptable.
The conditions of this aggression are incredible for the family of Yvan Colonna.
»
Miscellaneous facts
What we know about the attack on Yvan Colonna in Arles prison
Society
Aggression of Yvan Colonna: in Corsica, the University of Corte blocked in support
Miscellaneous facts
Terrorism
Police
DGSI
Marseilles
Aggression
Investigation
Arles
Yvan colonna
Jail
claude erignac
0 comment
0 share
Share on Messenger
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Flipboard
Share on Pinterest
Share on Linkedin
Send by Mail
To safeguard
A fault ?
To print