A supervisor of the prison of Arles, who had reported disturbing behavior of the murderer of Yvan Colonna before his attack, defended himself before the commission of inquiry of the National Assembly of any breach, according to a report put in line Monday.
The commission of inquiry had discovered that this supervisor had heard, on March 1, 2022, the phrase “I am going to kill him” in a conversation between three detainees including Franck Elong Abé. She had also noticed that the latter “emptied his cell”.
This information being absent from the data transmitted by the prison administration and not having been mentioned during the hearings in the Assembly, the nationalist deputy of Haute-Corse Jean-Félix Acquaviva, president of this commission, had told the press on March 15 of his “biggest questions” as to the “possible attempt to erase this data”.
Heard behind closed doors before the commission on April 4, the warden confirmed having heard “I am going to kill him” but explained that he had not reported it in the individual prisoner tracking software, “precisely because I did not know who had talked about, or who he was talking about.
The commission’s report is expected in May.
However, she indicates that she “reported” the information orally to her supervisor, who passed it on to his. “What certainty did you have that the information” was indeed transmitted?, insist the deputies, being surprised that there is no written trace of this “fairly serious” information while others, “more insignificant”, such as “a gift of packets of pasta” between prisoners, are included. “The first supervisor came back to see me to tell me that he had transmitted the information. I respect the hierarchical order,” replies the supervisor.
Regarding the second piece of information on the “change in behavior” of Franck Elong Abé, she maintains, on the other hand, that she made a written observation. It does not appear in “the extraction of the software”, underlines the president Acquaviva. “Are you really sure you mentioned her?” The supervisor confirms, before qualifying. “I may have validated it incorrectly or made a bad manipulation,” she said, specifying there too that she had reported it orally to her superiors.
He will be asked after the attack to write a report (March 11), then a second “more detailed” one (March 21) on these facts. “For several weeks, I had noticed that the detainee Elong Abé’s behavior had changed. Indeed the latter reduced the number of objects in his cell and when I pointed out to him, he replied that indeed he was creating a vacuum, ”it is written.
The commission’s report is expected in May. On March 2, 2022, Yvan Colonna, who was serving a life sentence in Arles for the assassination of the prefect Claude Erignac in 1998, was violently attacked by Franck Elong Abé, 36, who was serving several sentences including one of nine years. for acts of a terrorist nature. Franck Elong Abe is indicted for murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise. The judicial inquiry is ongoing.