THE EXHUMATION of the body of Sophie Toscan du Plantier in south-central France tomorrow is the first step in a legal campaign which her family hopes will result in the prosecution in France of the man who they believe killed her.
Such a trial is possible because she was a French citizen.
Patrick Gachon, the investigating magistrate assigned to the case, has ordered the exhumation and a second autopsy.
Ms Toscan du Plantier was murdered in west Cork on December 23rd, 1996. Two months ago, her family received the autopsy report written by then State Pathologist Dr John Harbison in March 1997.
Eric Dupond-Moretti, the criminal lawyer recently hired by the victim’s family, told The Irish Times he expects Judge Gachon to conduct a thorough murder investigation. “I cannot imagine he would order an autopsy and then stop. This is so painful for the family that it cannot be the only answer to the questions raised by Mr and Mrs Bouniol [the dead woman’s parents]. For me, it’s the prelude to a full-blown investigation.”
Mr Dupond-Moretti discounted suggestions by other French sources that this week’s autopsy is primarily to demonstrate seriousness of purpose. There was little more to be learned about the causes of Ms Toscan du Plantier’s death, he said, “but there are perhaps traces of DNA that were not found at the time. In France, forensic pathologists recently identified DNA in saliva on an envelope sent 17 years ago.”
A campaign group, the Association for the Truth about the Death of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, has provided Mr Dupond-Moretti with the names and addresses of most of the witnesses in a related libel trial in Cork in December 2003.
At the outcome of that trial, Judge Patrick Moran ruled that six newspapers had not libelled the English journalist Ian Bailey by identifying him as the chief suspect in the killing. “We want the Bailey affair to be completely cleared up, for him to come and explain himself,” said Jean-Pierre Gazeau, the uncle of the victim and the president of the association.
Judge Gachon intends to summon the witnesses whose details have been provided to him by Mr Dupond-Moretti. Eight people (Bill Fuller, Helen Callanan, Yvonne Ungerer, Malachi Reed, Richard and Rosie Shelley, Diane Martin and Marie Farrell) reportedly said that Mr Bailey told them or strongly suggested to them that he killed Ms Toscan du Plantier.
Irish witnesses cannot be forced to testify in France, but the family hopes they will agree to come to Paris to meet Judge Gachon.
At the 2003 libel trial, Ms Farrell said she was intimidated by Mr Bailey after testifying that she had seen him near Ms Toscan du Plantier’s home on the night of the murder. Nearly a year later, she retracted her testimony against him.
Alain Spilliaert, a French lawyer who worked on the case in 1997 and a member of the campaign group, now intends to file a suit under French law for intimidation of a witness.
On the basis of the autopsy and future testimony, Judge Gachon apparently hopes to build a case strong enough to justify the issuance of a European arrest warrant. Following the Madrid and London bombings, the EU concluded an accord on the arrest warrant, to which Ireland is a party.
If a warrant is issued, it is up to the Garda to arrest the suspect. He could challenge the warrant in an Irish court. Mr Gazeau said that if there is no result by the end of this year, the family would go to “the European level”.