1. Yvan Colonna was a Corsican nationalist convicted for the 1998 assassination of the prefect of Corse-du-Sud, Claude Erignac.
11 Facts About Yvan Colonna
1. 2.
Yvan Colonna was beaten to death in prison by a Cameroonian-born inmate for "disrespecting Muhammad", sparking riots.
3.
Yvan Colonna was the son of Jean-Hugues Colonna, a former member of the National Assembly for the Socialist Party elected in the Alpes-Maritimes and a recipient of the French Legion d'honneur.
4.
Yvan Colonna then went to Corsica and moved to Cargese, where his brother later opened a beach bar.
5.
Yvan Colonna later took up goat herding, a traditional occupation in Corsica, and joined a nationalist militant faction close to the National Liberation Front of Corsica.
6.
Yvan Colonna was suspected in several terrorist acts in the region, and notably to have taken part in an attack on the Pietrosella police station.
7.
Yvan Colonna was thought to have left the country, possibly for South America.
8.
However, an infrared camera set in the mountains of Corsica, near Vico as surveillance of a bergerie, a traditional Corsican shepherd stone hut, yielded evidence that Yvan Colonna was hiding there.
9.
On 13 December 2007, Yvan Colonna was pronounced guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.
10.
On 20 June 2011, Yvan Colonna's conviction was upheld on appeal, and he spent the remainder of his life in the Toulon-La Farlede detention centre.
11.
On 2 March 2022, Yvan Colonna was attacked in prison by Franck Elong Abe, an Islamist 36-year-old Cameroonian inmate, reportedly for "disrespecting Muhammad".