Alain Orsoni was president of the AC Ajaccio football club, politician and Corsican separatist.Image: imago sports photo service
In Corsica, a former nationalist leader is shot dead during his mother’s funeral. The island’s largest escaped an assassination attempt in 2008.
Jan 13, 2026, 3:07 amJan 13, 2026, 3:07 am
Christoph Cöln / t-online
Former nationalist leader Alain Orsoni was shot dead at his mother’s funeral in Corsica. The 71-year-old was killed with a single shot from a distance in the afternoon, the newspaper “Le Parisien” reported, citing the public prosecutor’s office. According to media reports, the fatal attack happened like something out of a mafia movie.
«It was a moment of sadness and pain. “Suddenly we heard a shot, Alain collapsed and was dead,” said priest Roger Polge on the France 3 Corse ViaStella television station. “What is happening in our country?”
“He was hit from a great distance,” said public prosecutor Nicolas Septe, according to the France24 portal. As the newspaper “Unione Sarda” reports, the sniper is said to have hidden behind a tree. He was able to flee the scene. The authorities announced that an investigation had been initiated into murder organized by gangs.
Orsoni, who was also ex-president of the AC Ajaccio football club, had already escaped an assassination attempt in 2008, according to media reports, while his brother Guy was shot in 1983. His brother’s body has never been found.
Orsoni founded separatist movement
The exact background to the crime on the French Mediterranean island, which is plagued by gang crime and settlements, was initially unclear. Orsoni was long considered a colorful figure in the Corsican separatist movement. He is said to have been part of an offshoot of the radical Corsican Liberation Movement (FLNC). This was responsible for numerous bomb attacks on the island in the 1980s.
After his time with the FLNC, Orsoni founded his own movement for self-determination, which his opponents described as a “movement for business,” reported Le Parisien. Orsoni was repeatedly targeted by the judiciary and lived at times in Florida, Spain and Nicaragua, where he was active in the gambling sector, among other things.
Psychological support was set up for the around 50 participants at the funeral in the small town of Vero, which is 30 kilometers east of the island’s capital Ajaccio, reported the “Parisien” and the newspaper “Corse-Matin”. (t-online/con)
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