PARIS, JULY 11 (AP/UNB) - France's highest judicial body has upheld the conviction of a Corsican shepherd for the murder of the French Mediterranean island's highest state official.
 
Yvan Colonna has been sentenced to life three times for the 1998 crime - once in his original trial, again in his appeal, and a third time last year in a retrial after the previous decision was overturned.
 
The 52-year-old Colonna, arrested in 2003, maintains his innocence. After the Court of Cassation ruled Wednesday, his lawyer, Patrice Spinosi, said that he would bring the case to the European Court of Human Rights.
 
Claude Erignac - a prefect, or governor, of Corsica - was gunned down on his way to the theater in Ajaccio, Corsica's capital city.