Yvan Colonna
(Picture: ARCHIVES/AFP via Getty Images)The French holiday island of Corsica is on maximum riot alert after a “hero nationalist” died in custody following a prison attack.
Yvan Colonna, 61, was under armed guard in hospital in Marseille, in the South of France, when he was declared dead on Monday evening.
Colonna had been in a coma since March 2, after being beaten by a fellow inmate serving time for terrorism offences.
Colonna was jailed two decades ago for shooting dead Corsica’s top official Claude Erignac, in 1998. He was found, following a five-year manhunt, in the mountains living as a shepherd.
His assault - and a perceived failure by prison authorities to stop it - stoked anger on the island, prompting its biggest and most violent protests in decades, with 77 police officers injured in the Corsican city of Bastia last Sunday alone.
Gangs members wearing balaclavas have taken to the streets chanting “freedom”, while taking part in running battles with security forces. Weapons confiscated have included petrol bombs and rockets.
His sentence was suspended on health grounds last Thursday, as President Emmanuel Macron’s government attempted to end days of rioting on the Mediterranean island.
But on Monday, Colonna family sources in Corsica confirmed the “hero nationalist is dead”.
This was confirmed by the French government.
By late on Monday, a Corsica police spokesman confirmed that “a full security alert” was in operation, and that riot police were on standby in all major towns and cities.
Despite its position in the sea close to Italy, Corsica is one of 18 regions of France. It has a population of just under 350,000.
It is hugely popular with holidaymakers, including many British who have second homes there, or have retired to the island.
Bonaparte, the future French Emperor, was a native Corsican, who was born in Ajaccio, in 1796 – the year the island was annexed as part of the French Empire.
