PARIS (Reuters) – Yvan Colonna, a jailed Corsican nationalist who was attacked at a prison in Southern France, died on Monday, according to French daily Le Parisien.
The strangling of Colonna by a fellow inmate three ago, which left him in a coma, prompted violent protests in Corsica in recent weeks, including clashes with police, and calls for nationalist prisoners to be transferred from the French mainland to the island, closer to their families.
Colonna was serving a life sentence for the 1998 murder of Claude Erignac, who as prefect of Corsica embodied the power of the French state on an island with a history of separatist violence.
The French government has indicated it would be willing to loosen its grip on Corsica, following the protests that have revived tensions between Corsica and Paris less than a month before presidential elections in the euro zone’s second biggest economy.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has said that dealing with the island’s status would be a priority during a potential second term in office for President Emmanuel Macron.
(Reporting by Mimosa Spencer; Editing by Sandra Maler)
