Twenty years after his life sentence for his participation in the assassination in Corsica of the prefect Claude Erignac, Pierre Alessandri was granted semi-freedom by the courts on Tuesday, a decision welcomed by Corsican elected officials.
“This probationary semi-release measure will take effect on February 13, 2023, for a period of one year. Subject to the proper execution of this semi-freedom measure, Pierre Alessandri will then be admitted to the conditional release regime, for a period of ten years, ”announced in a press release the Attorney General of Paris, Rémy Heitz.
The “strict application of the law respected”
“Of course, it’s a great relief,” reacted to AFP Me Eric Barbolosi, the lawyer for Pierre Alessandri, now 64 years old. “It is only the strict application of the law that has been respected. For the first time in the Court of Appeal, the magistrates endeavored to decide on the criteria which must condition a conditional release by disregarding the particular nature of this file, “he believes. And to add: “For the first time in this case, the State has adopted a principle of neutrality and justice has been able to make its decision in complete independence”.
This decision comes against a backdrop of tensions between Corsican nationalist elected officials and the state, ten months after the violent and deadly attack by a fellow prisoner in Arles prison of Yvan Colonna, who was serving a life sentence for the assassination of the Prefect Erignac. The death of the nationalist militant had given rise to demonstrations in Corsica, interspersed with clashes.
The executive had lifted the status of “particularly reported detainees” of the two members of the Erignac commando still alive, Pierre Alessandri and Alain Ferrandi, making it possible for them to be transferred to Borgo prison, in Haute-Corse.
“Politically a page turns”
The future release of Pierre Alessandri was hailed by many elected nationalists and, first of all, by Gilles Simeoni, president of the executive council and strongman of Corsica. “It was a strong expectation of Corsican society as a whole,” he says.
Twenty-five years after the assassination of the prefect Claude Erignac, shot dead in a street in Ajaccio on February 6, 1998, “this court decision also comes to say in a strong symbolic way that the moment (…) to write a new page of the relations between Corsica and the State came, without forgetting anything of the past, of the pains, underlines it still. We must look to the future and build a global political solution that includes institutional autonomy.”
“Politically, a page is turning. The time must be for appeasement and construction of the future of Corsica, far from the violence and the climate of tension that we have known, “considers Senator LR of Corse-du-Sud, Jean-Jacques Panunzi.
Releasable since 2017
Arrested in 1999, Pierre Alessandri and Alain Ferrandi were sentenced in 2003 to life imprisonment. They finished serving the eighteen years of their security period in 2017 and have therefore been released since that date.
Alain Ferrandi will know on February 23 if justice grants his third request for adjustment of sentence. Pierre Alessandri had suffered three refusals, on appeal, of conditional release with probationary semi-freedom.
One of these decisions was overturned in October by the Court of Cassation, sending the case back to be examined again by the Court of Appeal.
The semi-freedom measure will allow Pierre Alessandri to work outside Borgo prison (Haute-Corse) during the day, in a company specializing in pruning, clearing and landscaping rural and based in Ponte-Novu (Haute-Corse). Prior to his incarceration, he operated an essential oil production company.