Bailey’s lawyers are ready to fight bid to extradite him
A HEARING into the proposed extradition of Ian Bailey to France, for the alleged murder of filmmaker Sophie Toscan du Plantier, will take place in the High Court next month.
It is the third time the French authorities have sought Mr Bailey’s surrender in relation to the death of 39-year-old Ms Toscan du Plantier, whose badly beaten body was found outside her holiday home in Schull, Co. Cork, in December 1996.
Mr Bailey was convicted of the French woman’s murder, in his absence, at a court in Paris last year. The three-judge Cour d’Assises imposed a 25-year sentence on him.
The 62-year-old Englishman denies any involvement in the mother-of-one’s death. He did not have any legal representation at the French trial, which he has described as a ‘farce’.
Lawyers for Mr Bailey told the High Court yesterday that they had finalised their points of objection to the proposed surrender, which will be argued before Judge Donald Binchy on February 10. Ronan Munro SC said they will focus on ‘fundamental rights’, and the previous two extradition attempts.
The Supreme Court refused to extradite Mr Bailey in 2012, holding that surrender was prohibited because the alleged offence was committed outside French territory, and Irish law does not allow prosecution for the same offence when committed outside its territory by a non-Irish citizen.
Robert Barron SC, counsel for the Minister for Justice, has told the court the two previous extradition attempts were unsuccessful, but that in the intervening period, Mr Bailey had been convicted of Ms Toscan du Plantier’s voluntary homicide in a French court.
Mr Barron has also said that provisions introduced in the 2019 Criminal Law (Extraterritorial Jurisdiction) Act could raise two possible interpretations of the Supreme Court’s majority finding on extraterritoriality in 2012.
The second French extradition request for My Bailey, who has an address at The Prairie, Liscaha, Schull, west Cork, was dismissed as an ‘abuse of process’ by the High Court in 2017.
Judge Tony Hunt held that the ‘unique features’ of the case justified ‘termination’ of the proceedings.
He said Ireland’s Director of Public Prosecutions had concluded ‘long ago that there is no basis for either charge or trial on this matter, in this jurisdiction, and unusually, a comprehensive statement of reasons for this prosecutorial decision came into the public domain during the previous Supreme Court’ case.
‘Unique features’ of the case