New crackdown in Corsican nationalist circles.
Eight people were arrested on Monday morning, as part of the investigation relating in particular to a clandestine press conference in 2021, we learned from judicial sources.
"This morning, many arrests targeting activists and leaders of our party are in progress," confirmed the independence party Corsica Libera on Twitter.
According to a judicial source, Charles Pieri, alleged ex-leader of the FLNC, is among those arrested.
❌️❌️ The French State apparatus continues its repressive policy against @CORSICA_LIBERA.
This morning, many arrests targeting activists and leaders of our party are underway.
We demand their immediate release.
pic.twitter.com/cWqozfC3xd
— CORSICA LIBERA (@CORSICA_LIBERA) December 5, 2022
Sulidarita, the association for the defense of so-called "political" prisoners, indicated that the son and grandson of Charles Pieri were also among those arrested.
These arrests come as one of the three men arrested Thursday in Corsica as part of the same investigation must be presented to a judge for his possible indictment.
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Arrested at the same time, two other activists, including a member of Corsica Libera Pierre Paoli, were released on Sunday, we learned from sources close to the investigation.
At the end of three days of police custody, a man "is the subject of a warrant to bring for a presentation to the examining magistrate in the week" at the anti-terrorist pole of the Paris court for a possible indictment, said a source close to the investigation.
Two other people were released without charge at this stage on Sunday afternoon, she added.
One of them is Pierre Paoli, said sources familiar with the matter and the investigation.
An activist of the independence party Corsica Libera, Pierre Paoli is suspected of having been the leader of the Corsican National Liberation Front (FLNC).
“Absence of elements” against Pierre Paoli
His release "was written from the start in view of the absence of elements against him", reacted his lawyer Jean-François Casalta.
These three people had been arrested Thursday morning as part of a judicial investigation opened by the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office (Pnat), in particular the head of a terrorist criminal association, a judicial source had indicated.
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These arrests, carried out by the anti-terrorist sub-directorate (Sdat) of the judicial police, are linked to the investigation into a clandestine press conference, a source familiar with the matter told AFP.
In a press release, sent on September 2, 2021 to Corse-Matin, the FLNC threatened a return to armed struggle on the island if the French state continued "its policy of contempt".
On a video accompanying the press release, about fifty men, hooded, dressed in black and heavily armed surrounded an activist who read the text signed by the FLNC Union des combatants (FLNC-UC) and the FLNC on October 22.
