The event was launched on the initiative of nationalist student unions, joined by all nationalist parties on the island.
Le Monde with AFP
Several hundred people flocked Sunday, March 13 afternoon in Bastia (Haute-Corse) to express their support for Yvan Colonna, Corsican independence activist convicted for the assassination of the Prefect Erignac, victim of aggression in prison. ‘left in the coma, found the France-Presse agency (AFP).
Near the Bastia courthouse, from which the procession should start towards the prefecture, the streets have been closed, secure banks and banking distributors protected by wooden panels. And garbage containers, regularly used by some protesters to light fires, have been removed.
Under a fine and cold rain, the protesters were for some drapes in corsican flags. The procession header had not yet been deployed. Just before the beginning of the event, the Attorney of Bastia, Arnaud Viornerry, said AFP that “about 300 molotov cocktails [had] been discovered in a public space” of the city.
Questions about the conditions of the attack
This event was launched on the initiative of nationalist student unions, joined by all nationalist parties on the island, as for the Gathering of Corte last Sunday, which brought together 4,200 people according to the authorities, 15 000 according to the organizers.
The day after the aggression of Yvan Colonna at the Central House of Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône) on March 2, gatherings had taken place throughout the island, on the background of interrogations as to the Conditions for this attack on this independent Corsican activist who demanded his rapprochement in a prison on the island.
This week, the violence intensified, including the intrusion of about fifteen protesters Wednesday night into the Ajaccio courthouse, which they ransacked and attempted to fire. Friday, Prime Minister Jean Castex, tried to appease the situation by announcing the status of Pierre Alessandri and Alain Ferrandi, two other members of the “Commando Erignac” still detained on the continent. It is this status that blocked the rapprochement of the three men in a Corsican prison.