Commando Erignac: Alain Ferrandi’s semi-freedom request rejected on appeal

The Paris Court of Appeal announced on Tuesday May 24 that it had « rejected the request for adjustment of sentence formulated by Alain Ferrandi »sentenced to life in 2003 for his participation in the assassination of the prefect Erignac.

His request, which related to a period of probationary semi-freedom at Borgo prison (Haute-Corse) – where he is detained –, followed by conditional release, had been accepted at first instance on February 24, but the prosecution national anti-terrorist (PNAT) had appealed.

During the hearing before the sentencing chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal, on April 21, the public prosecutor had requested a rejection of the request for adjustment of sentence. A first request was refused in 2019, a rejection confirmed on appeal in January 2020.

“The file that we present meets all the requirements of the law in terms of reintegration. Employment, accommodation if exit permits are granted, compensation for civil parties: all the boxes are filled”had declared his lawyer Françoise Davideau before the decision.

Arrested in May 1999, Alain Ferrandi was sentenced in July 2003 to life imprisonment, accompanied by a security period of eighteen years. He has been eligible for parole since May 2017.

“No objective reason to block the file”

On May 12, semi-freedom had been granted to Pierre Alessandri, another member of the commando sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of the prefect Claude Erignac on February 6, 1998, but this decision had also been subject to a suspensive appeal from the PNAT. Pierre Alessandri has already suffered two refusals on appeal, in 2020 and 2021.

This new refusal is a “unjust decision which marks a new judicial harassment detrimental to the necessary political dialogue on the future of Corsica and to appeasement”reacted on Twitter the president of the Human Rights League, Malik Salemkour.

“There is no objective reason to block Mr. Ferrandi’s file. It is logical that these people who have never posed the slightest behavior problem for so many years can have a sentence adjustment.reacted for his part the nationalist deputy of Haute-Corse, Michel Castellani.

« Life imprisonment does not exist in France and we are inventing it for these people despite their behavior and despite the tragedy that there was in Arles »he added, in reference to the fatal attack on Yvan Colonna, on March 2, at the prison of Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône) by another prisoner.

About ten days after this attack, and while Corsica was in the grip of significant tensions, Jean Castex, then Prime Minister, had agreed to lift the status of « specially reported detainee » by Alain Ferrandi and Pierre Alessandri.

This decision made possible their transfer to a Corsican prison, which they had been asking for for a long time to be closer to their relatives, but which had always been refused until then. The two men arrived on April 11 at the Borgo prison, from the central house in Poissy, in the Yvelines.

Arrests linked to demonstrations in support of Yvan Colonna

Three police custody were underway Tuesday in Corsica as part of investigations opened for violence against persons holding public authority committed on the sidelines of demonstrations in support of independence activist Yvan Colonna, who died on March 21, announced the prosecutor from Bastia.

Two of these police custody, carried out at the request of the Bastia public prosecutor’s office within the framework of preliminary investigations, concern minors and events which took place on March 9 and March 1^er April in Bastia, said Arnaud Viornery, public prosecutor of Bastia. A search took place at one of the two detained, according to the same source.

On March 9, the prefecture of Haute-Corse denounced in a press release the presence at the end of the afternoon of “violent protesters”who « attacked the security forces positioned inside and around the prefecture » of Bastia, specifying that these had « suffered 95 Molotov cocktails » and jets of « agricultural bombs, iron balls [et] sling shots ». Eight police officers were injured, the prefecture said. 1^er April, clashes also took place in Bastia between demonstrators and the police.

The third police custody concerns an adult and takes place at the request of an investigating judge as part of a judicial investigation opened for events committed on March 13, said the prosecutor.

The youth movement of the independence party Corsica Libera, Ghjuventu Libera, regretted that “discussions between Paris and Corsica are [fassent] in police stations »calling « all Corsicans and particularly its youth » see you “to be ready for a large-scale mobilization”. The nationalist deputy Paul-André Colombani denounced on Twitter a “new day of repression and relentlessness”. Aiutu Paisanu, an association for the defense of Corsican prisoners, estimated that “Repression will never be a solution to the Corsican problem”.