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Funeral procession for Yvan Colonna
Photo: JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP
The Corsican separatist Yvan Colonna, who died in prison after an attack by a fellow inmate, was buried on Friday.
Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral of the 61-year-old in the village of Cargèse in southern Corsica.
Before his death, Colonna had been serving a life sentence for the assassination of Prefect Claude Erignac.
At the beginning of March, he was critically injured by a fellow prisoner in Arles prison.
Colonna succumbed to his injuries on Monday.
The attack on the Corsican had reignited old tensions on the Mediterranean island.
Violent clashes broke out between police and demonstrators who accused the French state of complicity in the attack on Colonna.
Because of the unrest, France's head of state Emmanuel Macron held out the prospect of a debate on the island's autonomy last week.
Macron envisaged reforms "which should recognize the historical, geographical and cultural characteristics of Corsica".
However, it must be clear that Corsica is part of the French Republic.
Proponents of independence from France have lost ground in Corsica in recent years, but many Corsican are calling for more autonomy for the island.
Among other things, they advocate the transfer of imprisoned like-minded people to prisons on the island.
The special status of Corsica should also be mentioned in the constitution.
Colonna, a Corsican shepherd and independence fighter, was convicted in France of the assassination of Prefect Claude Erignac in February 1998 and sentenced to life imprisonment.
A group of Corsican nationalists shot dead Erignac in the street in Ajaccio on February 6, 1998, as he was about to go to a concert with his wife.
A year after the murder, several members of the Corsican commando accused Colonna of the crime.
They later withdrew their statements, saying the police pressured them during the interrogations.
Colonna went into hiding after the prefect's death and was only caught in the summer of 2003 in a shepherd's hut in Corsica.
He explained his years of flight by saying that he was branded the culprit from the start.
He had always denied the crime and had gone before the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).
However, the Strasbourg judges dismissed his claim as inadmissible.
dop/AFP