A new call to demonstrate in Corsica, the French island in the Mediterranean, after the aggression, Wednesday, March 2, of Yvan Colonna by a fellow prisoner. This independence activist is serving a life sentence for the assassination of the prefect Érignac in 1998. He is still in critical condition. As soon as his hospitalization was announced, the island experienced a wave of tension.
Demonstrations took place in several municipalities of Corsica, Thursday and Friday, including one in front of the prefecture of Ajaccio. The University of Corte was blocked, as was a ferry connecting to the mainland. The boat was prevented from docking for nearly 7 hours. The Corsican workers’ union had called for blocking the arrival of reservist gendarmes who were on board. In the end, only the passengers were able to make landfall.
Parliamentary inquiry commission
Gilles Simeoni, the president of the Executive Council of Corsica, calls for a parliamentary commission of inquiry into the attack on Yvan Colonna. The first elements indicate that a detainee, presented as a jihadist, allegedly attacked the independence activist for insulting the Prophet Muhammad.
But Gilles Simeoni is not convinced, and mentions ” the sad Corsican experience of suppressed affairs “. This aggression revives the controversy linked to the detention of Corsican prisoners on the continent.
A “particularly reported detainee”
This is the case of Yvan Colonna, detained in Tarascon in the south-east of France. The activist is indeed considered a DPSa “particularly reported detainee”: no Corsican prison is suitable for these prisoners, considered dangerous and prone to escape.
After consultation, unions, political figures and former prisoners are calling for a regional demonstration this Sunday in Corte, to denounce an assassination attempt for which they hold the French state responsible.
► Read also: Emmanuel Macron: “no amnesty for the assassins of the prefect Erignac” in Corsica (February 6, 2018)