In a press conference held this Tuesday, December 13, the independence party once again returned to the arrest and indictment of several of its activists, including three members of its executive office. The movement deplores operations relating to “the police of ideas and the crime of opinion”.
Are we trying, from Paris, to silence Corsica Libera? The independence party is convinced of this: its members have for several weeks now been the target of the French government’s desire to “repress [leur] political action and to muzzle its expression“.
Accusations detailed by the party during a press conference held at its premises in Lupinu, in Bastia, this Tuesday, December 13. Seated alongside the executives, in particular, the representatives of the Patriotti collective and the Sulidarità association.
The choice of location is not insignificant: a week earlier, the office was raided by men from the anti-terrorist sub-directorate, within the framework of an open judicial investigation, in particular of the head of a “terrorist association of criminals “.
The investigation, as a reminder, would relate to an attack perpetrated against a second home illegally built in Capo di Feno, and a clandestine press conference dating back to September 2021.
This search, plague Petru Antone Tomasi, spokesman for Corsica Libera, was carried out “unfounded“, and thus reveals”the excesses of the French state apparatus, which intended to carry out an operation clearly falling within the scope of the police of ideas and the crime of opinion.“
The recent arrest of eight men, including seven members of Corsica Libera – among whom three elected to the executive office -, points to the same conclusions, he continues. Arrested early in the morning of December 5, all were transferred to Paris during the same day, and kept there for 96 hours, the legal limit, in police custody.
“The hearings carried out within the framework of a rogatory commission called “anti-terrorist” concerned exclusively the motivations of the political action of our militants as well as the organization and the functioning of the party to which they belong.“, denounces Petru Antone Tomasi. And it is thus on this single point, he continues, that all have been indicted for “criminal association”.
There is no doubt about the totally empty nature of this operation, and the fact that the prosecution was not justified.
Six were released under strict judicial control. The only incarcerated: Charles Pieri, also indicted for “possession of weapons in connection with a terrorist enterprise“, detained since Friday at the Fleury-Mérogis detention center. A historic figure in the movement, and now 72 years old, his state of health does not allow such a decision today, say the activists.
“He is an elderly person seriously affected from a health point of view. There is a clear risk of a life-threatening accident“, confirms François Benedetti, his doctor – and former territorial adviser Corsica Libera -. He denounces the conditions of arrest and detention “scandalous“, symbolic of “contempt for the state“for the militant and for his health.
Also present, Me Marc-Antoine Luca, counsel for the septuagenarian, indicates that he intends to put in place actions to demonstrate the incompatibility between the detention and the state of health of his client.
“There is no doubt about the totally empty nature of this operation, and the fact that the prosecution was not justified“, he insists, too.
“The strategy of Paris with regard to Corsica and the national movement is therefore clear today.“, slice Corsica Libera. Agree to discuss with some, and criminalize, at the same time, the independence party, designated as the black sheep of the nationalist movement by the State, believe the activists.
A strategy of “division of the national movement in order to silence any step of resistance in the face of the programmed disappearance of our people.”
And actions against which the party intends to continue to stand up, promising that “if by chance the French government were to carry out its desire to illegalize Corsica Libera, as was the case in the past, our political fight will continue with serenity and determination.“
Alongside the executive of Corsica Libera for this conference, Jean-Philippe Antolini, spokesperson for the collective for the defense of political prisoners Patriotti, regrets the policy applied by the government in Corsica, “colonial-type policy, ultra repressive, devastating for our society, under the impetus of its armed wing, the anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office.”
We have returned to the darkest hours in the history of Corsica
Jean-Philippe Antolini, Patriotti collective
“We have returned to the darkest hours of the recent history of Corsican nationalism, but also to the darkest hours of the history of Corsica“, he laments. Jean-Philippe Antolini sees in the arrests of nationalist activists a crime of opinion, because targeted “not for what they could possibly have done, but only for what they represent“.
By their indictment, “the French government clearly means that the only response today to the legitimate demands of the Corsican people is repression. And moreover, a repression that targets only part of the national movement, hoping to surf on the antagonisms.”
A situation “unacceptable“, against which the Patriotti collective calls”the Corsican people, through all its components and through all the means of communication, to position themselves and face […] before it is too late“.
A conference which will also have been an opportunity for Corsica Libera, questioned on this subject by journalists, to reiterate its solidarity with the actions of the FLNC.
A positioning that has “never deviated, constant at all periods“, recall the executives.
Corsica Libera denounces “the will of the State to repress” its political action