Assassination of François Santoni

On 17 August 2001, Corsican guerrilla leader and head of the extremist Armata Corsa organisation François Santoni was shot 13 times while attending the marriage of a family friend. The groom, Jean-René Tomasi, was also injured in the attack. The 6 attackers were mostly members of the Brise de Mer mafia, the largest mafia group in Corsica at the time, with the exception of Ange-Marie Orsoni. The attack was done after Santoni began accusing members of the National Liberation Front of Corsica-Canal Historique (FLNC-Canale Storicu, FLNC-CS), an organisation he resigned from co-leading three years before, of conspiring with the mafia. Despite the factors leading up to the incident, the incident has largely been ruled as personal score-settling without a political motivation. The incident was a major event in modern Corsican history, ending the 12-year long period of infighting known as the Years of Lead.

Santoni's death was initially investigated as a political affair due to his departure from the FLNC-CS and the subsequent war between Santoni's new group, Armata Corsa, and a coalition of other paramilitaries led by the FLNC-CS. However, evidence began to surface revealing the assassination to be an attack from the Brise de Mer mafia, a group he had been in a feud with due to his staunch anti-mafia positions. However, the participation of Ange-Marie Orsoni, the other assassin, has raised questions regarding the nature of the attack and the political climate at the time.