Joseph Péraldi is now 84 years old. He waited many years before lifting the veil on his long journey as an activist, particularly with regard to the escape of Yvan Colonna which he coordinated in 1999.Reporter-photographer for a local newspaper in Corsica by day and clandestine FLNC activist by night, Péraldi also has a military background in the French army during the Algerian War. It was only in 2005 that his clandestine life as a Corsican nationalist activist was revealed. That year, he was presented as the mastermind behind the Irish-style attacks committed in 1999, notably against Urssaf in Ajaccio. He gets 15 years in prison.
He recounts his journey for the first time in “Confessions of a Corsican Patriot”, published by Fayard and co-written with the journalist Frédéric Ploquin. In an interview with Le Point, he discusses some details of his book.
Details on Yvan Colonna's long run
He reveals in particular that he coordinated the escape of Yvan Colonna. This lasted more than 1,500 days. Yvan Colonna was then the most wanted man in France and he was designated as the assassin of Prefect Érignac: “I was contacted by Yvan Colonna in May 1999. The police pressure was growing every day around him. (…) That evening, with his brother-in-law, he asked me to put him on the run,” explains Joseph Péraldi. An exfiltration in which Yvan Colonna wore a scarf in order to go unnoticed. On his involvement during the run, Péraldi continues: “I followed him for nine months, until my arrest in the case of the Urssaf and DDE attacks. I visited him, usually in the evening, at least once a week. We regularly changed his hideout, using relays, being as discreet as possible”.
published on November 9 at 6:15 p.m., Myriam Bendjilali, 6 Medias
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