Alain Orsoni, a Corsican nationalist leader and former president of AC Ajaccio who was charged with murder, was shot dead by a sniper during his mother’s funeral in the village of Vero (in upper Corsica).
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he was hit by a long range gun
The former politician and soccer coach was shot three times and died instantly in front of 50 witnesses who attended his funeral.
“It was a moment of pain and sadness. Suddenly we heard a gunshot and Alan fell to the ground, dead.”
“He was shot with a long-range gun,” prosecutor Nicola Septe said.
“It was a moment of pain and sadness,” Roger Polge, the priest who presided over the funeral, told France 3. “It was a moment of pain and sadness. Suddenly we heard a gunshot and Alain fell to the ground and died.”
The prosecutor’s office is investigating Orsoni’s murder as a premeditated act by an organized gang.
Alan Orsoni, a life marked by violence, attacks and murder
The former leader of the Front for the National Liberation of Corsica (FLNC), who spent years in exile in Spain and Latin America, resigned in 2025 after 10 years as AC Ajaccio president amid financial problems.
Alan Orsoni’s life was always marred by violence. In 2008 he survived an assassination attempt, but in 1983 he lost his brother Guy (one of Corsica’s most wanted fugitives) in an attack allegedly linked to the Corsican mafia.
Authorities have linked Orsoni’s nationalist political activities to a series of attacks in Corsica in the 1990s.
Mr. Orsoni was also accused, convicted and later pardoned for the machine gun attack on the Iranian embassy in Paris in 1980.
