A famous Corsican independence scientist dies after being assaulted in prison

Corsican independence activist Yvan Colonna, sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of a French prefect, died on Monday as a result of the assault he suffered in prison, which had led to severe unrest on the French island of the Mediterranean.

Colonna, who was imprisoned for the 1998 assassination of Prefect Claude Erignac, died Monday in a hospital in Marseille, in the south of France, his lawyer, Patrice Spinosi, told AFP, conveying a message from his family.

A police source, who asked to remain anonymous, confirmed to AFP that Colonna, 61, had died.

“The family asks that their grief be respected and will not comment,” added Spinosi.

The activist, one of the best-known prisoners in France, was in a coma following the beating of another prisoner, arrested on terrorism charges, in prison.

The incident caused outrage on the island, where part of the population still sees Colonna as a hero in the struggle for Corsica's independence, and led to the worst clashes between police and demonstrators recorded in years.

Colonna was arrested in 2003, after having been wanted for five years.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1998 murder of the prefect of Corsica Claude Erignac.

In an attempt to defuse the anger aroused by his assault in prison, the French justice suspended Colonna's prison sentence on 17 March for health reasons.

Meanwhile, the French Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, said last week in an interview with a newspaper that the government might be willing to negotiate an “autonomy” for Corsica.

French President Emmanuel Macron pointed out that the subject of Corsican autonomy should not be a “taboo”.

But he added that the riots must cease before any dialogue can take place.

- Tension relief? -

Darmanin's statements and his subsequent visit to Cordega helped to ease tensions, although it remains to be seen how the independence movement will react to the activist's death.

The president of the regional government of Corsica, the nationalist Gilles Simeoni, told AFP that Darmanin's comments were “important words” that “open up a perspective”, but urged it to concretize them.

The aggression once again put on the table a series of demands of the Corsican nationalists such as greater political autonomy, the approach of prisoners to prisons on the island, the recognition of the Corsican people or language.

And he woke up the National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC). This clandestine movement, which officially laid down its arms in 2014, threatened to resume the struggle for Paris's “contempt” for the aspirations of the Corsican people.

In a country less decentralized than its neighbours Spain or Germany, Corsica has had a particular status since the 1990s, similar to that of the French territories in the Caribbean — Guadeloupe and Martinique — and Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean.

Since January 2018, Corsica has been considered a territorial community, which combines departmental and regional functions, and manages new competencies such as sport, transport, culture and the environment.

However, the nationalist leaders, in power since 2015, go further and ask, among other proposals, for resident status to acquire property on the island and greater scope for fiscal maneuver.

Talks on autonomy will begin in April and should conclude before the end of the year, according to the memorandum agreed by Darmanin and Simeoni.

Colonna's assailant, Franck Elong Abe, jailed on several charges, including that of “association of terrorist evildoers”, is being investigated for attempted terrorist murder since March 6.

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