French State Ordered to Pay €75,000 to Yvan Colonna's Heirs Over Prison Failures

A court found the prison administration's negligence contributed to the fatal 2022 attack on the Corsican militant by a radicalized inmate.

The French administrative court ruled the state must compensate Yvan Colonna's heirs for failures in the prison system that led to his death.
Colonna, serving a life sentence for assassinating a French prefect in 1998, was fatally attacked by a radicalized inmate in 2022 at Arles prison.
The court identified major lapses, including inadequate inmate monitoring and failure to place the attacker in a radicalization evaluation unit.
The compensation reflects the emotional distress Colonna experienced before his death, including the fear of imminent harm and abandonment.
The attacker, Franck Elong Abé, was a high-risk inmate with a history of violent behavior and terrorist affiliations, raising questions about prison oversight.