Assassination of the prefect Erignac: semi-freedom for Alain Ferrandi, member of the commando

Graffiti in Bastia demanding freedom for the members of the commando of the assassination against the prefect Érignac, Yvan Colonna (L), Alain Ferrandi (C) and Pierre Alessandri (R), March 14, 2022. © AFP - Pascal Pochard-Casabianca

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Alain Ferrandi had been transferred in April 2022 to Borgo prison, in Corsica with Pierre Alessandri, also sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of the prefect Claude Erignac in 1998. Pierre Alessandri also saw his sentence adjusted in January 2023 . 

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The court for the application of anti-terrorism sentences granted the request for adjustment of the sentence of Alain Ferrandi, sentenced to life imprisonment in 2003 for the assassination in Corsica of the prefect Claude Erignac.

Alain Ferrandi, presented as the head of the Érignac commando, had been released since 2017. 

At 62, he was granted a measure of day parole from a probationary year to a parole for a period of ten years.

However, this decision may still be the subject of a suspensive appeal.

At the end of January 2023, the Paris Court of Appeal also granted a request for sentence adjustment from Pierre Alessandri, another member of the commando of the assassination of the prefect Érignac.

The two men had been asking for several years for a sentence adjustment after having served 18 years of their period of security.

They both suffered several refusals of justice.

This sentence adjustment will allow Alain Ferrandi to work outside during the day, then to return and sleep in Borgo prison, where he was transferred in April 2022 with Pierre Alessandri.

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The assassination of the prefect Érignac in 10 dates:

• February 6, 1998: 

  the prefect of Corsica Claude Érignac was shot dead in a street in Ajaccio

• February 9, 1998

  : an anonymous nationalist group claims the murder

• May 21, 1999

  : four men (Didier Maranelli, Alain Ferrandi, Marcel Istria and Pierre Alessandri) are arrested and confess.

  They designate Yvan Colonna as the commando shooter

• June 19, 2003:

  during their trial, four defendants exonerated Yvan Colonna

• July 11, 2003

  : Alain Ferrandi and Pierre Alessandri are sentenced to life imprisonment.

  Six other people are sentenced to 15 to 30 years for complicity

• July 4, 2003:

  Arrest of Yvan Colonna in a sheepfold near the village of Olmeto in Corse-du-Sud.

  He proclaims his innocence

• March 27, 2009:

  Yvan Colonna is sentenced on appeal to life imprisonment with a security period of 22 years

• March 21, 2022

  : death of Yvan Colonna following an attack on a fellow prisoner at Arles prison (Bouches-du-Rhône).

  Demonstrations with violent clashes shake Corsica.

  Nationalist movements denounce “the murderous French state”.

• April 11, 2022

  : Alain Ferrandi and Pierre Alessandri, whose status as "particularly reported detainee" (DPS) was lifted by the Prime Minister, are transferred to Borgo prison (Haute-Corse)

• January 31, 2023:

   the Paris Court of Appeal grants a request for sentence adjustment from Pierre Alessandri after several refusals

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