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Hundreds of mourners turned out Friday for the funeral of a Corsican nationalist whose violent death in prison has turned him into a martyr for some despite his murder conviction.
Yvan Colonna, a former goat herder on the French Mediterranean island, was announced dead Monday after being strangled and attacked in prison on March 2.
The 61-year-old was serving a life sentence for the murder of a senior French official in 1998, but he is seen as a hero by some for his role in the violent struggle for independence for the island which lies less than 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of the mainland.
“He represents the fight for Corsica,” Ange Amati, who campaigned for his release, told AFP Friday ahead of the funeral. “We know Yvan, we know that nothing was proved, he was innocent in all of this.”
Colonna’s murder in prison by an Islamic extremist outraged many Corsicans and has galvanised the local pro-autonomy or nationalist movement, which has battled for decades for greater freedom or independence from Paris.
After several nights of rioting in early March, the government made a surprise offer of talks about increasing the island’s autonomy in a move welcomed by the dominant political group on the island, Femu a Corsica.
But public displays of support for Colonna, including the lowering of flags on the regional government building Tuesday and vigils attended by thousands, have created unease on the mainland where Colonna is remembered simply as the killer of local prefect Claude Erignac.
The decision to lower the flag in tribute was “a sort of insult to the Erignac family, the French state and the representatives of the state,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Thursday.
Tributes
Colonna’s funeral took place in his ancestral home in Cargese, a village on the rugged western coast of the island, which is famed for its…
Source : france24
