“God hit Yvan Colonna through my hands”: the testimony of the attacker before the investigators – Teller Report

Several hearing minutes of the main suspect in the murder of Yvan Colonna could be consulted by AFP and extracts leaked in various media, while the remains of the Corsican independence activist arrived on the island on Wednesday 23 March. “I didn’t act on behalf of any group. I acted alone…It wasn’t thought out.” Should we believe Franck Elong Abe? On March 2, this Frenchman from Cameroon attacked Yvan Colonna, attacking him to death in the sports hall of Arles prison, for 8 long minutes. Serving a sentence for “association of terrorist criminals”, he assures that in the case of this aggression, “there is nothing (in) connection with a terrorist enterprise”. “I saw Yvan Colonna and I acted without thinking about the rest,” insists the defendant. Yvan made blasphemous remarks towards God “You are convinced that there is a mentor behind with accomplices, except that I told you the truth, I have no mentor. From the start (…) I explained to you that it was not thought out and that I was not in jihad”, adds the alleged aggressor. However, from his first hearing on March 2, he told the investigators: “Yvan made blasphemous remarks towards God. (…) He was acting as God’s attorney”, and this on 5 or 6 occasions out of the eight last few months, according to the respondent. A murder in the name of faith But for him, the punishment he inflicted on his victim is not terrorism. Franck Elong Abe also added, referring to the magistrates before whom he was presented, that he did not care “that they make the amalgam (..) between an act of faith or an act of terrorism”. “I consider that God hit Yvan Colonna through my hands. God used my hands to retaliate against the one who blasphemed,” he then repeated several times. Did he premeditate his action? A doubt still remains as to the premeditation of this deadly attack. Doubt that the inmate in question wishes to dismiss as quickly as possible: “It came to me suddenly. I call it mektoub, destiny, (…) something that you do not control. (. ..) I was in a state of mind to act in the moment.” He also specifies that “normally there should not have been any detainees in the room”: “Yvan must have been at the stadium”. So, surprised to see the Corsican, he would have taken action all of a sudden, without preparation: “Yes I necessarily improvised and yes I was off to take his life”. A paradoxical discourse But this discourse seems paradoxical to say the least when we observe the entirety of his discourse. If we listen to the defendant, he seemed to get along well with the man he killed: “If one day I had been told that I had to hit Yvan Colonna, I would never have believed it. If there there is one that I did not want to attack (…) it is him. He adds: “With him at least we could share certain things, (…) run, play boules and chess.” Only, two days before the attack, Yvan Colonna would have “made remarks still offensive to God”. “I did not like it and I told him, he apologized,” explains the respondent. But then, why kill him two days later, even though he enjoyed his company and exchanged with him on many subjects? Only the evolution of the investigation will allow us to know more.