Corsican political prisoner Yvan Colonna almost killed in a French gaol

Yvan Colonna, sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Prefect Claude Erignac, suffered a brain death after a suspicious attack on the Arles prison on Wednesday, March 2. He was treated by the emergency services and admitted to the unit. of intensive care in absolute urgency at the end of the morning, before being transferred, at the end of the afternoon, to a hospital in Marseille. He died on March 21st. He was strangled by a "companion" taken during a sports activity session. The alleged assailant is Franck Elong Abe, a 36-year-old man imprisoned for radical Islam. Arrested in Afghanistan in 2012, he is serving a nine-year prison sentence and was released in December 2023, according to the prison administration.

According to her lawyer, Stella Canava, Yvan Colonna had not reported any threats or conflicts with other detainees who had recently emerged. To me, Sylvain Cormier, also in charge of his defense and questioned by AFP, is “especially surprising that, although Yvan Colonna is one of the most watched detainees in France for his status […], which prevents him from being closer to his relatives in Corsica, the prison administration has proved incapable of guaranteeing his basic protection ”.