Appeals court upholds conviction over governor's murder

A French appeal court today confirmed the conviction of a shepherd for the 1998 murder of Corsica’s governor.

The judges sentenced Yvan Colonna, who was not present for the verdict, to life in prison. He was also found guilty of taking part in an attack five months earlier on a police station where the murder weapon was obtained.

Colonna, who has claimed he is innocent, may appeal to France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation.

Defence lawyer Antoine Sollacaro said: “This decision is unjust.” He then accused the court of refusing “to envisage any hypothesis but guilt”.

Colonna was first convicted in 2007 of killing Claude Erignac, who as prefect, or governor, was the Mediterranean island’s highest-ranking state representative.

Erignac’s family expressed relief at today’s ruling. “Justice has passed,” said family lawyer Philippe Lemaire.

Colonna’s supporters criticised the decision and planned to demonstrate tomorrow in the Corsican capital of Ajaccio.

The retrial began on February 9 and has gripped the island.

Anti-terrorism judges who investigated the 1998 killing said Colonna was part of a commando team – six members of which were convicted for either a role in the murder or the earlier police station attack.

On March 6, three of the six told the appeals court that they had been pressured into implicating him and said he was innocent.

Colonna has long insisted he is innocent. However, his acknowledgement during the first trial that he was a nationalist fuelled prosecutors’ suspicions that he had political motives.

Colonna walked out of the trial March 11 in anger over the court’s refusal to re-enact the crime. His lawyers made no final statement on his behalf.

“All the elements of this case converge on the guilt of Yvan Colonna,” said state prosecutor Christophe Tessier. “If Yvan Colonna wanted to prove his innocence, it is here that he should have done it.”

Erignac was killed on February 6, 1998, as he went to the theatre in Ajaccio.

Colonna went into hiding and was not caught until 2003.