Calls for calm after Corsican nationalist dies from prison assault

The French government called for calm in Corsica on Tuesday after the death of jailed nationalist figure Yvan Colonna raised fears of fresh violence on the Mediterranean island. 

Colonna was attacked on March 2 by a fellow inmate at a prison in southern France where he was being held over the 1998 assassination of a senior French government official.

News of his death -- which was announced late on Monday -- risks inflaming tensions after some of the worst rioting for years earlier this month in Corsica, where some see Colonna as a hero in the fight for independence.

"The most important thing is that calm continues and that discussions carry on," French President Emmanuel Macron told France Bleu radio, promising that an investigation would determine how Colonna had been killed.

"A man has died. It's a serious situation... we can't allow such things to happen in our prisons," he added.

Marches were called on Tuesday in the island's main cities Bastia and Ajaccio, while candle-lit tributes and Corsican-language graffiti saying "Gloria a te" ("Glory to you") appeared on the streets.

One of France's most prominent prisoners, 61-year-old Colonna was left in a coma after being beaten and strangled in prison in Arles by an Islamist extremist serving time for terror offences.

"The family requests that its grief is respected and will be making no comment," Colonna's lawyer Patrice Spinosi said on Monday evening, confirming that his client had died in a hospital in Marseille from his injuries.

"We have to give the family time to mourn. But there is a lot of anger and sadness," Antoine Soulas, a student, said on the sidelines of a march outside the local government office in Ajaccio on Tuesday.

A criminal probe and an internal prison inquiry have been opened, while the government in Paris has made surprise concessions over the island's political status just a month from presidential elections.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin announced last week that the government could be prepared to offer Corsica autonomy, which helped police restore order after several nights of clashes.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Jean Castex' office announced that Colonna's accomplices Alain Ferrandi and Pierre Alessandri would be transferred to a prison in Corsica "by mid-April".