THE BODY of Sophie Toscan du Plantier will be exhumed from her grave in a French village in south- central France on Tuesday, 11½ years after she was murdered in west Cork.
No one from the family will attend, but the mayor of Saint-Germain du Teil and the local undertaker may witness the procedure, which has been ordered by Judge Patrick Gachon, the most recent of several examining magistrates assigned to the case.
The body will be transported to Paris, probably by ambulance, where a detailed autopsy will be conducted over one week.
Judge Gachon confirmed to The Irish Times by telephone that he decided to order the exhumation "some time ago" and filled out necessary documentation at the end of last week. The victim's family announced on Thursday evening that the exhumation was imminent. Judge Gachon said the French criminal code prevented him from discussing what he hopes to learn from the procedure.
"The judge didn't explain," said Jean-Pierre Gazeau, the brother of Toscan du Plantier's mother, Marguerite Bouniol, and the president of ASSOPH, the association founded at the end of last year to bring the Frenchwoman's killer to justice.
A scientist himself, Mr Gazeau said: "Taking account of the progress in medical science over the past decade, they can search for DNA. They can study the head wounds and breaks in the skull. There should still be traces, and it will be a very careful study. Forensic scientists are now able to make remarkable discoveries from very few elements."
Judge Gachon met Georges and Marguerite Bouniol last winter. The dead woman's parents were "extremely upset" about the exhumation and "want to rest", Mr Gazeau said, but they accept "it must be done because French justice has decided to move forward and we are awaiting future actions based on this".
Mr and Mrs Bouniol, along with Toscan du Plantier's late husband Daniel, filed a French civil suit against Ian Bailey, a west Cork-based journalist, in 1997.
The case fell dormant while the family waited for the Irish justice system to identify, charge and try her killer. "At the moment, we are only working with the French system, but we would be very happy if things moved on the Irish side," Mr Gazeau said. "We want the DPP to take a decision. But for 10 years, letters rogatory [seeking information] have been refused [by Ireland] and we are extremely doubtful about a decision coming from Ireland."
The family has hired Éric Dupond-Moretti, one of France's best-known criminal lawyers and the man who won Eroline O'Keeffe's case against the French state for denial of justice in the murder of her son Trevor.