France’s newly inaugurated anti–organised crime bureau is to investigate the murder of the former Corsican separatist leader Alain Orsoni, who was shot dead while attending his mother’s funeral on Monday afternoon.
Orsoni, 71, was shot while he was attending his mother's funeral in the cemetery of Vero, in his family village located about thirty kilometers from Ajaccio, according to the city's prosecutor.
"He was hit right in the heart by a single bullet from a long-range shot, " prosecutor Nicolas Septe said. Local police confirmed the assassination.
The newly established National Prosecutor's Office for Anti-Organised Crime (Pnaco), whose magistrate is expected on site Tuesday, quickly announced it would take up the case "particularly in light of the victim's status and his ties to the Corsican underworld."
It will conduct the investigation jointly with the Interregional Specialised Jurisdiction (JIRS) of Marseille, which specialises in cases of organised crime on the French island.
Orsini previously lead the separatist Corsican Movement for Self-Determination, which French police considered to be the legal front for the armed group, the Corsican National Liberation Front-Traditional Wing (FLNC).
Authorities linked the Corsican National Liberation Front-Traditional Wing to a series of attacks on the island in the 1990s, some of which the group claimed.
Years in exile
Orsoni had just arrived in Corsica on Sunday from Nicaragua where he had been living in exile and where he had set up activities in the gaming sector.
"He comes to bury his 91-year-old mother and they throw the son's body on his mother's coffin, it's unspeakable, it's despicable," Jo Peraldi, close to Orsoni and former head of the clandestine FLNC movement, told French news agency AFP.
Father Roger Polge, who officiated at the funeral service, said it was during a moment of sorrow and grief.
"Suddenly we heard a gunshot, and Alain collapsed, dead," he told France 3 Corse ViaStella channel. "What is happening in our home?"
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Tragedy and revenge have been a part of the Orsoni family's lives for over 40 years.
After studying in Paris, Alain Orsoni became one of the leaders of the FLNC before founding the Movement for Self-Determination (MPA), later labelled by his opponents as the "Movement for Business."
Orsoni was convicted and imprisoned in several cases over the years. He was convicted and later pardoned in connection with a machine gun attack on the Iranian embassy in Paris in 1980.
Series of murders
In 1983, Guy, Alain's brother and a nationalist activist himself, was assassinated.
A year later, Alain's son was born, whom he named Guy in his memory. Currently incarcerated, Guy is now considered a notorious figure in Corsican organised crime.
Known for his political acumen and composure, Alain Orsoni left Corsica in 1996, in the midst of a bitter internal conflict within the nationalist movement.
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After 13 years in exile, he returned to Corsica in 2008 and, a few weeks later, survived an assassination attempt for which several members of the rival gang "Le Petit Bar," named after a café in Ajaccio, were convicted in 2011.
In October 2012, his lawyer, Antoine Sollacaro, was gunned down. A month later, another close associate, Jacques Nacer, president of the South Corsica Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), was also murdered.
Orsini also presided over the AC Ajaccio football club from 2008 and intermittently until his official resignation in 2023, although he remained involved in the club's affairs until the summer of 2025. The club, placed in receivership in August due to severe financial difficulties, is the subject of two investigations, notably for extortion, fraud, and forgery.
Corsica has a special status within the French administration and the question of the island's autonomy has been at the heart of years of negotiations, launched after following the protests that broke out over the death of pro-independence militant Yvan Colonna.
The latest bill proposed in July 2025 would amend the 1958 French Constitution to enshrine Corsica's autonomous status, taking into account its specific characteristics. It grants Corsica powers to adapt and set regulations.
It is awaiting debate by French lawmakers.
(with newswires)
