Paris, 13 January 2026 (dpa/MIA) - Former Corsican nationalist leader Alain Orsoni was shot dead at his mother's funeral on Monday, according to media reports.

The 71-year-old was killed in the afternoon by a single shot from a long-barrelled weapon fired from a distance, the French newspaper Le Parisien reported, citing the public prosecutor's office.

An investigation into organized murder has been launched.

Orsoni, who was also the former 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 dead in 1983.

The exact circumstances surrounding the crime on the French Mediterranean island, which is plagued by gang crime, were initially unclear.

After his involvement in the nationalist movement striving for the island's independence, Orsoni spent a long time in Florida, Spain and Nicaragua, where he was active in the gambling sector, reports said.

After his time with the National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC), Orsoni founded his own movement for self-determination, which his opponents described as a "movement for business," Le Parisien reported.

Psychological counselling was provided at a hospital in the island's capital, Ajaccio, for the approximately 50 people who attended the funeral in the small village of Vero, the newspaper said.

Photo: Internet