Prosecutors probe killing of former Corsican nationalist leader at his mom’s funeral

Former Corsican nationalist leader and football club executive Alain Orsoni was killed while attending a family member’s funeral on Monday, France’s anti-organized crime prosecutor, who is overseeing the investigation, said in a statement.

Prosecutors are investigating the incident as a possible murder, the statement read. No arrests have been made as of Tuesday.

Local prosecutor Nicolas Septe told reporters little information was immediately available, apart from the fact that Orsoni had been shot from a distance at his mother’s funeral and died shortly afterward. Orsoni led several political movements in favor of Corsica’s independence in the 1980s and 1990s and was elected to regional office — before leaving the French Mediterranean island for South America in 1996.

Orsoni’s brother Guy was killed in 1983 by a Corsican gang. His son, also named Guy, was sentenced to 13 years in prison last year for the attempted murder of convicted Corsican gang member Pascal Porri.

Orsoni returned to Corsica in 2008 to head the then-professional local football club AC Ajaccio — the club has now fallen to the lower, amateur levels of French football — and survived a first assassination attempt shortly after taking up the role.

This is the first time the anti-organized crime prosecutor’s office, which began operations last week, has taken charge of a case. The office was set up by legislation passed last year to strengthen France’s response to a surge in killings tied to drug trafficking.

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