Corsica: 23-year-old man, recently acquitted, shot dead

Europe 1 with AFP 11:44 am, November 08, 2021

A 23-year-old man, acquitted in February 2021 in Bastia for an attempted homicide, was killed this Monday shortly after midnight in Pietralba (Haute-Corse) by firearm, said sources familiar with the case and with the lawyer for the victim.

This young farmer was implicated in a homicide attempt in 2017 before being acquitted in February by the Bastia Assize Court, said sources familiar with the case and the investigation who were wondering about a possible link with this case.

Hit by four shots

"Following his acquittal which we obtained last February, Jean-Antoine Marcelli had resumed the course of his life among his family and devoted himself to the development of his farm," said the victim's lawyer, Mr. Julien Pinelli, confirming the death of his client. “United in mourning and meditation, his family is now waiting for answers on the circumstances of this tragedy,” he added.

"He was shot dead around midnight when he was returning home," said Arnaud Viornery, the Bastia public prosecutor, without wishing to communicate for the time being any information on the victim or his judicial past. He was hit by four shots of buckshot, said a source familiar with the matter. An investigation for murder was opened and entrusted in co-referral to the judicial police and the research section of the Corsican gendarmerie, said the prosecutor.

On May 13, 2019, Pietralba, a small village of 450 inhabitants, had already been the scene of the assassination of a 23-year-old young man, Antoine Francisci, who was shot and killed while driving his buggy.

Three men, one of whom, presented as a figure of island organized crime, was indicted in June 2020 for murder in an organized gang in this case.