They were, Sunday followingnoon, several thousand – 4,200 according to the prefecture, 15,000 according to the organizers – to brave the rain in Corte, in Haute-Corse, to support Yvan Colonna. The Corsican separatist, sentenced to life for the assassination of the prefect Erignac, is still between life and death on Monday following being violently attacked by one of his fellow prisoners, Franck Elong Abé, convicted for acts of terrorism in Afghanistan. Nearly eight minutes of incredible violence, “systematic relentlessness”, in the words of the anti-terrorism public prosecutor, Jean-François Ricard, who “leaves little doubt regarding the homicidal intentions” of the suspect. The latter admitted the facts in police custody, indicating that he had done so following comments he considered blasphemous.
But behind this aggression and its conditions, right inside the Arles prison, it is the thorny issue of the transfer of Corsican detainees to the island that is resurfacing. “One can legitimately believe that if he had been brought closer, Yvan Colonna would not have been exposed to the risks of the extremist violence of which he was the victim,” said one of his lawyers, Mr. Patrice Spinosi, the day following the assassination attempt. For almost ten years now, his counsel has been asking him to serve the end of his sentence on his home island. A request denied year following year. At issue: its status as a “DPS” – a specially supervised detainee – which concerns regarding 350 detainees in France, most of whom come from the middle of big banditry or terrorism, who are considered to be at greater risk of escape or because of their danger.
A debate that transcends political divisions
However, while the Borgo prison, not far from Bastia, is entitled to long sentences, it is not equipped to monitor this type of detention. “This issue of bringing prisoners closer transcended the political cleavages on the island before this case, but now it is even more forceful,” said Xavier Crettiez, a late connoisseur of Corsican nationalism and a teacher at Sciences Po Saint-Germain. en-Laye. How can it be argued that an inmate requires increased vigilance and at the same time explains that he may have been the subject of an assassination attempt for almost 10 minutes, so far from guarding the guards?
In December, island deputies and senators from all sides signed a platform in The world to support this rapprochement, seeing in these systematic refusals a decision more political than security. Because Yvan Colonna is not the only one in this situation. These requests for reconciliation have always been refused to Alain Ferrandi and Pierre Alessandri, also sentenced to life in this case. “A ‘particularly flagged detainee’ is, according to the texts, a detainee who presents a particular danger or, for example, for whom there is a risk of escape. Concerning these three men, their very long detention passed without any difficulty or incident”, wrote the parliamentarians.
Appeal by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office
Both finished serving their security period in 2017. In December 2020, even though the national commission for DPS files, which may or may not renew this status, decided in favor of lifting this measure, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, opposed it. At the end of February, it was the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office which put a brake on this measure of rapprochement. While Alain Ferrandi was granted a semi-freedom detention regime on the island, the prosecution appealed. A situation that had experienced, a few weeks earlier, his former accomplice Pierre Alessandri. Could the aggression of Yvan Colonna change the situation? The Prime Minister must decide shortly on the possible lifting of the status of “DPS” for these two detainees.
