Organised crime prosecutors on the French island of Corsica are investigating the killing of former separatist leader Alain Orsoni, who was shot dead while attending his mother’s funeral.
Orsoni, 71, who had been living in exile for years in Nicaragua, was a well-known figure in Corsica.
It is thought he was hit in the chest by a single bullet fired by a gunman lying in wait as the funeral ceremony in the village of Vero ended on Monday afternoon.
“It would appear he was hit by a long-range shot. He died pretty quickly from his injuries,” said Corsican prosecutor Nicolas Septe.
“We’d just finished burying Alain’s mother – it was a moment of pain and grief,” said Father Roger-Dominique Polge who had led the funeral service.
“Suddenly we hear a gunshot and Alain falls down dead. In the middle of a cemetery, after a religious ceremony, I ask where are we, what kind of home are we living in? It’s as if Corsica is worse than Sicily – it’s unimaginable.”
No motive is yet known but Orsoni was for decades a high-profile figure in Corsican society and his graveyard murder in his native village shines a light on the criminal clans that have blighted the island.
The investigation into his murder is being handled by a newly created national anti-organised crime prosecutor alongside the Marseille-based specialised regional crime office.
A police source told Le Monde newspaper there were similarities with recent gangland killings targeting people linked to Orsoni’s son, Guy.
In 2023, two of Guy Orsoni’s associates were shot dead, both by a gunman firing from some distance away. Guy Orsoni is himself serving a 13-year jail term for the attempted murder of a member of the so-called Petit Bar gang in 2018.
Alain Orsoni led a storied life in Corsica and abroad.
Renowned for his good looks and rich singing voice, he became attracted to Corsican nationalism in the 1970s and took part in a gun attack in front of the Iranian embassy in 1980. Three years later his brother was kidnapped and presumed murdered.
“Father, brother and son all found themselves thrust over time into the heart of politics and criminal cases,” criminologist Alain Bauer told Ouest-France newspaper.
Alain Orsoni later founded the separatist Movement for Self-Determination (MPA), which won four seats in elections in 1992. He was unable to take up his seat because of campaign irregularities and later spent time in jail for a series of offences.
Amid violent splits among Corsican nationalist leaders, he left the island for Central America in 1996, eventually returning to become president of football club AC Ajaccio in 2008.
Weeks after his return, police thwarted a plot to kill him by the Petit Bar gang.
His role at AC Ajaccio ended in 2015 but he returned as club president in 2022, before returning to exile in Nicaragua and then resigning from his post in September last year.
He was long aware of the risk to his life and, after the killing of four of his associates over a two-year period, he told Le Figaro newspaper in 2012 that he had bought an armoured car under pressure from his family after he was targeted in 2008.
“I’m not afraid of dying. I don’t wake up every morning thinking I’m going to be killed. I live a normal life, without a squad of bodyguards,” he said.
“I’m portrayed as a godfather, even though I don’t even own a business on Corsica. As former head of a nationalist movement for 15 years I wasn’t exactly a saint. But to depict me as a dangerous wheeler-dealer? That’s a joke.”
