Judges Order Terrorism Trial for Franck Elong Abé in Yvan Colonna’s Prison Killing

Overview

• The investigating judges’ order issued Thursday sent Franck Elong Abé to the specially composed Paris assize court to be tried for assassination linked to a terrorist enterprise.
• The order omits the criminal-association charge because judges found no prior contact with any third party before the attack.
• Magistrates wrote that the assault was carried out with extreme violence and included several minutes of suffocation, which they said showed an unequivocal intent to kill.
• Colonna’s family lawyers rejected the lone-actor conclusion and cited the attacker’s claimed links to French services, unexplained freedom of movement inside prison, and cameras reportedly under maintenance that day.
• The case stems from the March 2, 2022 attack in Arles and Colonna’s death on March 21 while he was serving a life sentence for the 1998 killing of prefect Claude Érignac.