The suspect in the fatal attack on Corsican activist Yvan Colonna, convicted of the assassination of prefect Erignac, refused to answer the investigating judge’s questions on Friday in Paris on his new version reporting “a sponsored act”. according to civil party lawyers.
Franck Elong Abé, 37, had recently “written to the investigating judge to discuss an act ordered by individuals presenting themselves under a false identity but being agents of the DGSI (General Directorate of Internal Security) who allegedly told him “order to assassinate Yvan Colonna” in prison in 2022, a source close to the case reported on March 20.
Heard this new version on Friday by the investigating magistrate, he remained silent, indicated counsel for the Corsican activist’s family present at the interrogation. “We regret this childish attitude and this refusal to answer questions at a time when everyone is ready to collect their statements,” reacted to AFP Me Sylvain Cormier, one of the lawyers for the victim’s eldest son. “It’s a step backwards.”
“An extremely contemptuous and casual attitude”
Me Jean-François Casalta, who represents the widow of Yvan Colonna, criticized “an extremely contemptuous and casual attitude”. When this letter was revealed by the Corsican media, the close source called “to consider his new statements with the greatest caution” given his “psychiatric state” and “the inconsistency of part of his writing”.
Psychiatric experts concluded that the suspect’s judgment was impaired at the time of the events, she recalled. The Interior Ministry denounced “completely false and unfounded allegations”. Franck Elong Abé is indicted for assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise.
“Malfunctions” in the penitentiary establishment
He violently attacked Yvan Colonna on March 2, 2022 in the sports hall of Arles prison (Bouches-du-Rhône). The independence activist, sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of prefect Claude Erignac in 1998, died from his injuries.
Franck Elong Abé had claimed during his first interrogations to have “acted alone”, “on behalf of no group”, because Yvan Colonna would have blasphemed the Prophet Mohammed. He was classified as a particularly serious detainee (DPS) due in particular to his dangerousness and violent behavior.
A parliamentary commission of inquiry into the conditions of this fatal attack pointed out in May 2023 “serious failures” in the assessment of the dangerousness of Elong Abé and general “dysfunctions” in the penitentiary establishment.