Two individuals suspected of having taken part in an assassination attempt at the owner of a night bar located in southern Corsica in 2023 were placed in pre -trial detention, the Ajaccio prosecutor announced on Saturday.
Among them is Simon P., former trading partner of the victim, dismissed shortly before the co -management of the night establishment called “Before”. He is indicted for “attempted extortion by violence, threat or constraint”.
The arrests took place between April 7 and 8, as part of a vast operation carried out by the gendarmerie, during which eight people were placed in police custody.
“A rifle, three bulletproof vests and an armored vehicle were seized by the investigators,” said Nicolas S., a public prosecutor in Ajaccio, in an official statement.
At the end of the police custody, only two of the individuals arrested were referred before the investigating judge in Ajaccio.
The facts date back to May 2, 2023, around 2 am. Antoine Salasca, then 50 years old, had been the target of several shots when he returned to his home in Porticcio, on the southern bank of the Gulf of Ajaccio, shortly after the closure of his establishment, the “Before”. However, it came out unscathed.
In the hours that followed, a calcined vehicle was discovered in the neighboring town of Cauro. Inside were weapons. An investigation into attempted assassination in an organized gang was then opened and entrusted to the gendarmerie research brigade.
Antoine Salasca, a known figure in the Corsican scene, was sentenced in 1999 to five years’ imprisonment by the Paris Special Assize Court, for an attempted attack on a public building three years earlier in Ajaccio.
Presented as a member of the historic FLNC-channel, he had chosen to remain silent throughout his trial, contenting himself with declaring that he had “nothing to declare”. He had been acquitted for the attack on the Departmental Directorate of Agriculture, but convicted of having participated in an attempted attack on the National Center for the Territorial Public Service, thwarted on August 29, 1996.
As for Simon P., his former partner, he has already been indicted since April 2022 for the association of criminals in order to commit a crime, as part of the investigation relating to the assassination of Jacques Baranovsky, a municipal agent killed on June 7, 2020 at the Akuel brewery, on the outskirts of Ajaccio.
(With AFP)
