THE FAMILY of murdered French woman Sophie Toscan du Plantier is to ask the French justice ministry to contact the Department of Justice to see whether internal communications from the Director of Public Prosecution’s office have ever been given to a defence team in a criminal matter.
Alain Spilliaert, lawyer for Georges and Marguerite Bouniol, told The Irish Timesthat the family had discussed the matter with an Irish lawyer retained by them and was informed that it was unprecedented that the DPP would make internal documents available to a suspect.
Mr Spilliaert said that the family and the campaign group, the Association for the Truth About the Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier, plan to ask the French minister for justice to ask Minister for Justice Alan Shatter if such moves are unusual.
“Our information is that this is unprecedented and we want to have that confirmed so we have asked the ministry for justice here in France to inquire of the Irish Minister for Justice if that’s the case and if so why has it happened,” said Mr Spilliaert.
He said the family were puzzled as to why this information, if it had to be disclosed to lawyers representing Ian Bailey, was not disclosed to them before the High Court case in 2010 rather than just before his Supreme Court appeal last week against a High Court order for his extradition to France.
Mr Bailey is wanted for questioning in France in connection with the murder of Toscan du Plantier (39) in Schull in 1996.
Mr Spilliaert said it remained his belief, having studied Mr Justice Michael Peart’s ruling in the High Court, that any issues regarding the Garda handling of the case were not relevant in that the central question for the court to adjudicate on was the rights of an accused person in French law.
